Change the BC Food Service

One of my biggest complaints about Boston College is the Food Service. There are numerous changes which could be made to make the Food Service better which would result in a popular motion of support from the student body. The main issues are the cost of the food, the quality of the food and the hours of operation.

We pay 54K a year to come to school here, a good portion of which is dedicated to room and board (and a meal plan). We are alotted roughly 20 dollars a day for the entire semester based on the "average" college student. Three meals a date but only totaling 20 at the end of the day? Wow, I was unaware that the average college student is an anorexic wreck of a human being (funny for a sports school). Must be really cheap food then! Wrong. The food prices here are worse than an upscale restraunt. A poptart which costs a dollar in a normal vending machine is 1.50 here. Cookies? 6.50. A Sub with a bag of chips? 13.99 to a normal $5. These jacked up prices make it harder for students to stay within their meal plan forcing them to add more money to their account while giving BC a hefty profit. And does the cost match the quality?

As a Newtonite, I have the "honor" of eating at Stuart Dining hall, which is supposedly the best dining hall in BC (I honestly prefer Lower's Corcoran Commons). The quality of the food is subpar for an institution which claims to offer only the best. Their baked goods are stale and flaky. What cookies aren't sold are ground up and used as toppings for Fro-yo in the dining halls. The "Quality" dinners are priced at 15 dollars and they are dry or undercooked. As a result I go to eat at the far less nutrituous late night, so that I can have some grilled food that isn't health but is definately cheaper. Occationally, the food itself is off and hasn't been changed in time to save the poor soul who tries to eat it. Adding this to the fact that Newton's dining hall is only open until 12 (as opposed to Main Campus dining Halls open until 2), leads to a very dissatisfying experience.

Several changes need to be made in order to solve this problem. The first is for BC to either lower prices or increase the amount of money allotted for meals without increasing tuition costs. Especially given the fact that the school is being run like a business, there needs to be an effort to make it more affordable for the students. By lowering the prices, students will have an easier time budgeting their money without worrying about starving. Lowering the prices of the healthy dinners and keeping the price of late night reasonable would result in less freshmen students suffering from the freshman 15 (30 in some cases...). Extending the operating hours of all dining halls would also help students with their late night cravings and reduce any losses the university would experience for reducing their outrageous prices. While these are just suggestions, the student body would applaud these measures because they are practical, rational suggestions with the express purpose of helping out the students (which is what a university should do.)