Recently, Central Michigan University sent an announcement about changes that will be occurring in the dining halls. Throughout this semester, students have been unhappy with the overall status of food quality and have demanded change. As of October 13th, the problem has only gotten worse. 

Dining halls hours have been drastically changed. While dining halls such as United Table in North campus and Dine + Connect in East campus have not been changed, Social House in South Campus and The Eatery in Towers are now facing closures. The Eatery will now no longer be open on the weekends and closed on Friday for dinner, despite having an incredibly large population of campus to feed. On top of this, Social House will only be open from 6pm-11pm Monday through Thursday, leaving little time for South Campus residents to eat throughout the day.

These changes have left large portions of the CMU community without means of getting food. Residents have also mentioned that throughout this semester, food compensations for those that require special meals (e.g. allergen free, meat free, etc.) have been having trouble with access to acceptable meals. Those who were already having trouble getting food will face even bigger struggles, now that there will be more people in one location with a limited amount of food that meets their needs. Alongside this, going to other communities for dining options will increase the number of residents in one section and therefore increase the risk of COVID-19 exposure, with CMU not announcing any plan to prevent this from occurring.

How did CMU decide to compensate for the drastic changes? Give more FLEX dollars to students.

The problem with the usage of FLEX on campus comes to this: the places on campus where FLEX is accepted are extremely limited. The newly renovated basement of the University Center, which was meant to provide exciting new eating opportunities to students closes at 5:30pm on Monday through Thursdays and at 2:30pm on Fridays. While there are many outside factors contributing to these times, these are not times that are beneficial for students who are now losing access to their dining halls.

Now, what about the places that are open, like the East Campus Market? While the times are still accessible, the renovations that took place over the summer has dramatically decreased the available food options for people to pick up their meals. With this, too, the prices of items have drastically been inflated. With the already low options and inflation, the available supply of the preexisting choices is limited.

With the food quality being near inedible, the dining halls being closed, and having little options to use the school’s “compensation,” students no longer have a place to eat. Students are forced to get groceries and food off campus. While CMU likes to preach about how they are able to help students who are facing food insecurity, they are forcing even more students into that exact same situation Warner Hall says they are hoping to fix. With these factors already at play, kitchenettes have old and poorly functioning equipment, which creates a hazard for those who decide to prepare meals in their dorms.

Students now demand CMU to hold themselves accountable for the problems that are taking place and compensate in a way that is actually good for students. Those in Warner need to make the decision to reopen dining halls and provide adequate food for the hefty price students are forced to pay OR give students a substantial monetary compensation so that they are able to afford groceries as a means of feeding themselves.

CMU has been disregarding students’ needs for food this entire semester. For the thousands of dollars we, as students, pay the University, we deserve the right to eat.