By Sarah Elizabeth Tooker

Contributing Writer

For the first time, the University is requiring all incoming freshmen to purchase a $1,525 unlimited “All Access” meal plan.

Kristina Hopton-Jones, the director of University Dining Services, called the All Access meal plan a new feature to UA’s Freshman Year Experience package. She said the switch was made to make on-campus life more like living at home, where food was readily available.

“The plan is intended to allow students maximum flexibility as they navigate through their first year away from home,” she said. “With the All Access plan, the students may come and go as often as they like and treat the dining halls like their kitchen away from home. Hopefully, it will encourage students who live together to eat together and build strong community connections.”

Previously, freshmen were given the choice between a plan providing 160 meals for $1,350 a semester or another unlimited plan that cost $1,757 each semester.

Freshman Aman Khurana, an accounting major, said it is unfair for freshmen to have to buy the plan because they will never have the opportunity to eat enough meals to cover the cost of it.

“Being forced to purchase an unlimited meal plan should at least include 24/7 availability of the dining halls,” Khurana said.

Khurana said he believes freshmen should be required to buy some type of meal plan, but the unlimited meal plan is an expensive requirement.

Hopton-Jones said the $1,525 All Access plan is cost-saving: the old swipe system cost $8.44 per meal, while the new All Access plan can make each meal as cheap as $4.54.

However, a student would need to eat at campus dining halls three meals a day, seven days a week for the entirety of the semester to get each meal for $4.17. Theoretically, buying meals at the $8.44 cost, students would have to buy 181 meals to break even on the All Access plan.

Keith Edwards, a junior majoring in French and public relations, said he wished the plan had been implemented his freshman year.

“There was always stress towards the middle and end of the semester because you start thinking you need to ration your swipes,” he said. “It’s a pain when you run out because it’s much more expensive to eat off campus.”

Although incoming freshmen don’t have a feel for what having a limited number of plans was like, many said the new requirement would be less stressful. Nick Lamprinakos, a freshman majoring in business from Pennsylvania, said both his wallet and stomach like the new plan.

“One thing, as a freshman, that you worry about is money, and now, you don’t have to worry if you have the money or swipes to afford food,” Lamprinakos said. “As a guy, I eat a lot, so there’s nothing better than knowing you can eat at any dining hall as many times as you like and you also don’t have to waste all of your Dining Dollars at independent food places.”

On the other hand, Kayla Haynes, a junior majoring in chemical engineering, said she remembers never being able to use all the swipes of her Greek 50 meal plan.

“It was always a pain trying to balance eating between the sorority house and dining halls since you pay for both,” Haynes said. “I felt guilty choosing to eat off campus knowing I still had the majority of my swipes left.”

Students living in greek houses that require a meal plan purchase within the organization will automatically have their meal plan reduced to the Greek 50 plan when they’re officially accepted as pledges.

Greek freshmen can then choose to add additional meals to their plan or pay the community dining charge of $197, dropping their dining hall meal plans entirely.