Sophomore philosophy major Neal Shlack recently had a problem at the Spartan Club dining area.
“If we’re paying for our meals, how we use them should be up to us.”
“[At Spartan Club] I let my friend use my card first and he was able to get the meal just fine. Then when I tried to pay for mine, [the cafeteria worker] said that I couldn’t give my card away to other people. And she took my card,” Schlack said.
He didn’t get the card back immediately.
Schlack wasn’t sure where to go. “I went from the Spartan Card Office, to Dining Services and even the Vaughn Front Desk. No one had it.” Schlack continued, “Some people even told me that they didn’t even know that they could take away cards.”
Confused about how to proceed, Schlack finally asked a worker. “She directed me to her boss who had them in his pocket.”
A growing number of students are engaging in disagreements about meal exchanges with food service staff.
“One day me and my friend were going to Spartan Club but he had misplaced his card so I said I could buy him one,” said Freshman Erik White “When it came time to check out I had two meals for myself and two for my friend.”
White continued, “I was told I can only use one meal at a time and that I would be charged for the other meals using my Spartan Dollars. I went to the manager and had to get him to ‘okay’ using my meal exchanges for the meals.”
Eric Cardenas, director of Public Information, explained UT’s policy on the matter. “The meal plan/meal exchange program is designed for personal use only,” Cardenas said. “If students wish to host friends or family for meals, they may use UT Dollars. Your Spartan card is only usable by you . . . If students are caught using someone else’s ID for any reason (to swipe for a meal, to enter a building, to check out a library book) they are in violation of Article 5 – Identification in our Student Rights and Responsibilities.”
Article 5 states: A University I.D. card is to be used only by its owner. This card may not be loaned, sold, fabricated, altered or transferred.
Sophomore communications major Tevin Christopher said he also had his card taken.
“There’s no reason why a student shouldn’t be able to give another student a meal exchange, which do not rollover, if they have left over meals on the weekend. He said, “It’s a meal plan the students pay for and we should be allowed to use it whichever way we choose to.”
In some instances, students are inconvenienced without their cards.
“I got it back on Monday at noon so I had to wait for someone to let me in to Stadium Sunday night. It was a huge hassle. Plus I had to walk all the way to Vaughn in the morning, instead of just being able to eat in Stadium,” he said.
Pranav Lokin can be reached at Pranav.lokin@spartans.ut.edu.
This is completely unfair and I agree with this article. I just don’t understand why we can’t use our meals on whatever we want since they meals don’t roll over. There are plenty of universities that just give you a large amount of meals through out the semester and they get to choose how they are used through-out the week. This is why i refused to pay for a larger meal plan, It makes me feel like I am just throwing my money away and somehow the school gets to rob me of my meals if i don’t use them all in any given week.
agreed!! When I went to school it was such a waste to see that the meals that I didn’t eat and had PAID FOR was something I wasn’t able to use in any way I wanted. I think the school needs to rethink their plan on this; they already have strict meal plans, so students arent able to decide their own number of plans for the year. I might choose 15 meals, but oods are I’ll only eat 12 – so if I want to use it for my friends, family, or whoever I choose I should be able to!!
Tuition Paying Parent – I along with you have absolutely no problem with rules about not giving your Spartan Card to others for use. When I attended UT, I used to go to eat with roommates at the end if the week and depending on who had meals left, one of use would use our card to buy dinner for two other guys. I think as paying customers of a dining plan that students should be able to choose how try use their meals. This is 100% about the dining services company making money money than they already are off of the meal plans and nothing else. It is a disgrace.
As a fee paying parent, I appreciate the “Spartan Card” can’t be shared policy. There are security issues associated with sharing the card for access to dorms, etc. However, the value on the meals on the card should be used at the discretion of the student. Period.
It is difficult for me to imagine the justification of this policy. It is my understanding that many students, when, at the end of the week find that they have leftover meals, purchase the meals and give them to homeless people.
Will this be enforced as well?
Just sign me off as Disgruntled Tampa Parent.
As an alum of the school I think this is ridiculous! The students (or their families) pay for their meal plans because they are forced to have a meal plan if they live on campus. If the plan is forced upon the student, then they should be able to “gift” meals to whomever they want. This has less to do with the University and more with the food service company I am sure. Regardless, the University is there to serve the students, not the food service business. The brass at UT needs to stand up for the students. They already do not get rollover (which I think on meals, students should not get), but if they want to gift all of their meals to others, then so be it!
I completely agree that the students should be able to use their purchased meals (which do not rolloever, but should) anyway they wish. The system is rigged to only benefit the University and does not take into account the funds lost by students who have extra meals at the end of the week due to having been out of town or otherwise not able to use all their meals during the week. I think the University should be pressured into either allowing the sharing or having the meals rollover throughout a single semester.