This past March, the Student Government Association passed a bill hoping to raise the cash value of meal swipes at UT, but Vol Dining declined.
SGA created the Meal Equivalency Bill to raise the cash value for meal swipes from $5.50 to $8 for the Tennessee Unlimited 5 and Tennessee Unlimited 7 meal plans. The increase in cash value would have allowed students with these plans to buy more with their meal swipes rather than having to resort to using dining dollars or other forms of payment for any purchase over $5.50. The implementation of this bill would have also likely increased the price for these meal plans.
Vol Dining did not implement this bill even after SGA lobbying. There were multiple contributing factors to this, one of which is the fact that UT already has a good deal among SEC schools, as explained by SGA representative Campbell Butler.
“Most SEC schools have a set meal equivalency of around $15, but it can only be used once per day. At UT we get three meal swipes a day equal to $5.50 if students are on an unlimited plan. That equals to $16.50 per day, which means we get a better deal here than most schools,” Butler said.
To directly compare to other SEC schools, the University of South Carolina offers a kind of meal swipe called a ‘retail swipe’ that has a cash equivalency of either $7.65 for breakfast or $10.65 for lunch and dinner. They are limited to seven swipes per week and only students with a specific meal plan get these swipes.
At the University of Florida, freshmen students with their suggested meal plan can have meal swipes called ‘retail equivalency.’ These can be used at retail locations and dining locations outside of the dining halls. They have 10 of these swipes per week and they have a cash equivalency of $7.25.
The cash equivalency at UT for unlimited plans is lower for each swipe than at many other SEC schools, but having three swipes a day makes it so that UT students get higher cash value from their daily meal swipes.
Vol Dining Associate Director of Marketing Rebecca McKnight also brought up the point of UT’s meal swipes being a good deal even with the lower cash equivalency for unlimited plans.
“Meal plans offered at the University of Tennessee rank as one of the lowest price points compared to peer institutions. They also rank highest in terms of most expansive and flexible cash equivalency, allowing students to utilize it three times a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” McKnight said. “Other schools that may offer a higher cash equivalency typically provide it as an option only once a day or as a ‘buy up’ on their meal plan.”
She then went on to explain another big reason Vol Dining did not implement the meal equivalency bill.
“Vol Dining did not implement the bill because we are nearing the end of our food service contract,” McKnight said. “Any changes to meal equivalency would require a formal change to the contract and also impact pricing, which is not feasible with the limited time left in the agreement term.”
Students such as commuters and upperclassmen with the weekly or block meal plans do have the higher $8 cash equivalency for meal swipes. They also have a slightly different number of meal swipes per day. They get three Monday through Friday, and two on the weekends.
