CSUSM Housing is planning to implement a mandatory dining plan in Fall 2020 for students living in the Quad and the UVA. This meal plan demands that residents pay an additional $4,598 (freshman) or $3,098 (non-freshman) each year on top of the monthly rent due for the academic year. Both the Quad and UVA were built as apartment-style dormitories with fully operating kitchens. This allowed students to prepare their own meals on their own budgets. So why should students be forced into paying for a meal plan that they might not even need? 

Here’s the logistics of it all:

The most “affordable” housing in both dormitories is $8,128(UVA) and $8,160(Quad) with a lease that covers students for 8 months of housing. Students who would be living in the most affordable housing plans would have to pay monthly:

$1,016 (UVA) + $574.75 (1st years) =$1,590.75

                       + $387.25 (2nd years & up)= $1,403.25

$1,020(Quad) +$574.75(1st years)= $1,594.75

                       + $387.25(2nd years & up) =$1,407.25

******AGAIN, this would be the most “affordable” for housing residents.

A detailed breakdown of these plans can be found on https://www.csusm.edu/corp/commservices/diningserv/fall2020/mealplans/residentfaqs.html

Why is this a big deal?

 For a campus that prides itself on its robust population of first-gen low-income students, it seems that CSUSM cares more about profit than the financial wellbeing of our students.  Low income students who do receive financial aid would not only need to find another source of income but they would be prompted into pulling out loans. We came to CSUSM with dreams of gaining some sort of social mobility only to be met with the anchor of financial debt. It is fiscally irresponsible of CSUSM and CSUSM Housing to force its students to participate in a plan that they will not be able to afford.

CALL TO ACTION

      Although the meal plan website says there are students who are exempt under special circumstances there is no clear definition of who may qualify for the exemption. No information has been provided which is worrisome as we should be questioning, Why should housing define who should be able to be exempt or not?  Why should a student qualify for an exemption, rather than be given the option to opt-out of this plan?

      We, the CSUSM Students, demand that CSUSM and CSUSM Housing address the mandatory meal plan and acknowledge it is detrimental to our low-income students or students with the inability to pay for the meal plan. We request that the meal plan be changed from mandatory to voluntary as a way to give all students control and leeway of their financial situations. We shall not allow the future of our incoming and future students to be burdened with the costs of living while obtaining higher education.