Dear Dining Services Staff at Purchase College,

Hello! I am a student at Purchase, and my fellow classmates and I are looking to see some changes made to the meal plan system. So listen up! Our complaints and demands are listed below:

COMPLAINTS

1. Each “meal” is worth a total of $6.00. This is completely unreasonable, as many of the food items at the retail dining places on campus(The Hub, Starbucks,Terra Ve) are overpriced and cannot fit into the value of one meal. 
2. The 12 Plus, 15 Plus, and 19 Plus meal plans limit students to 3 meals per weekday and 2 meals per weekend day. This is also extremely unfair. Many are hungrier after using up these meals. However, when they want more food, it takes away from SuperFlex money, which is often used up pretty quickly(Because food on campus is so expensive).
3. POSSIBLE SCENARIOS

• At Starbucks, a student can order a SMALL frappuccino and a GRANOLA BAR, but it will add up to over a meal(Each small Double Chocolatey Chip Frappuccino costs $5.00). This is absolutely absurd. Every Starbucks product is ridiculously overpriced, making the meal equivalency rule here totally unfair.
• At The Hub, a student can order a roast beef sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water for lunch, but it won’t all fit into one meal. SuperFlex will have to be used as well. Since when did adding a bag of chips kill anybody??
• A student could then order 6 mozzarella sticks and a water bottle from The Hub that same night for dinner, but it won't fit into one meal either. Mozzarella sticks cost about $7.00, and when combined with a water bottle that’s around $2.39, the entire dinner adds up to about $10.00, which would equal a meal and approximately $3.00 on SuperFlex. I know- I’m shocked too.
• Let’s say a student were to get sick and have to return home for a week to get better. When they arrive back at Purchase, they will find that they cannot go back and use the meals they missed while they were gone; that money goes completely down the drain instead(If the student were on the 19 Plus plan, 19 meals would be wasted, adding up to $114.00). This is probably the most absurd rule, because it proves that students’ money is being taken away from them; even when it is ultimately not their fault. Purchase College students and families sink so much money into college already, only to be ripped off even more by an unfair meal system. 

DEMANDS

1. I believe that the Purchase Dining Staff should completely do away with the “meal swipe” system and the “$6.00 per meal, this amount of meals allowed per day” rules. Each student should instead be given a certain amount of money each semester to use on the food they eat. This system, known as the Point Plan, would give students the opportunity to buy whatever food they want, for however much money, whenever they want. This way, students are not limited to how much they can eat per day or spend on each meal. They would also learn to budget their money(Like logical people do in the real world), which would prepare them for later in life. The Point Plan is currently used at schools such as Binghamton University, SUNY Oswego, SUNY Plattsburgh, Suffolk County Community College, Farmingdale State College, Alfred State College, and Manhattan College. 
2. Purchase is a smaller school like Suffolk, Farmingdale, and Manhattan. Therefore, Purchase students should have access to the Point Plan as students at these schools do. It is completely unjust that students’ meals are going to waste and money is being taken away from them. They are being stripped of their meal plan rights and deserve to not be limited in how much they spend per "meal", or how much they eat per day. 

I hope y’all consider the complaints and demands listed above. Purchase students deserve to be treated better and given more freedom within the meal plan system. 

Sincerely and Respectfully,

A Frustrated Purchase Student