For the 2024-25 academic year, W&L has made numerous changes to the dining experience. Beyond a newly expanded and renovated Marketplace to improve flow and seating capacity, these changes include:

1. Limiting Marketplace to-go options to strictly ReusePass reusable containers
2. Requiring students to purchase a minimum meal plan of 15 meals/week as opposed to the former minimum of 7 meals/week

While these initiatives were done with positive intent (promoting sustainability, reducing food insecurity, encouraging communal dining/social engagement, reducing material costs, etc.), they fall short in practice.

For example, among other criticisms, these changes:

• Eliminate vital choices such as compostable cups and bowls for beverages (hot and cold), soup, yogurt, fruit, and desserts
• Impose unnecessary financial burden on all students regardless of aid package
• Undermine the usefulness of kitchen spaces in both on-campus and off-campus housing options
• Exclude campus members (including but not limited to international students and student athletes) who have been denied accommodations for varying practical, financial, religious, cultural, and medical needs

As a student body, we are calling on W&L's administration to maintain its commitment to student wellness by responding to our need for agency. In a university known for its community trust through the Honor System, we believe that policies should reflect a similar trust in students to know their nutritional/financial needs best and manage them autonomously. 

With this in mind, we urge administration to take our requests into consideration by 1) restoring formerly available to-go and meal plan options and 2) instead collaborating with students to achieve their intended benefits to the W&L student experience. 

Please show your support by signing this petition and, if possible, sharing your own comments about and/or experiences with these recent changes.

Thank you!

Lizzy Nguyen ('25) and Grace Rustay ('27)