At Tulane University, students pay at least $8,440 per year for meals on campus. For this price, you would think students were being served the best food New Orleans has to offer. But the new dining options put into place this fall suggest otherwise; Tulane just wants your money.  

In previous years, Tulane offered a variety of dining plan options for both first and second-year students. First-year students could choose an unlimited plan, which included unlimited swipes for entry into Malkin Sacks Commons and Green Wave Grille, plus $250 of Wavebuck$. The university offered the TU 15 plan, which offered 15 swipes per week for the dining halls and $400 of Wavebuck$.  

Second-year students also had these options, along with two additional plans that offered 10 or  seven swipes per week, each paired with a larger amount of Wavebuck$. Students were also offered the Kosher Dining Plan, which is significantly more expensive but provided more options for kosher students. These dining options afforded students flexibility based on their dining preferences.  

But starting this year the university made a major change: All first and second-year students are now required to have an unlimited meal plan, with either $250 or $500 in Wavebuck$. The Kosher dining is still an option for students as well.  

This new requirement is both inconvenient and financially burdensome. There is no real difference between the unlimited 250 and unlimited 500 options — the unlimited 500 just costs $250 more, forcing students to pay for Wavebuck$ either way.  

Further, with breakfast ending at 10 a.m. and the Commons closing as early as 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Commons is not a good option for all students. Last year, I had the TU 15 meal plan but rarely used all 15 swipes, instead opting to eat many other meals at on-campus dining options that take Wavebuck$. 

First and second-year students who didn’t use their swipes last year are now required to enroll into an unlimited plan while third-year students must choose between the unlimited or TU 10 plan. With the new plans, students have less Wavebuck$ if they want to purchase food from the Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life or other on-campus food options. Ultimately, this structure pushes students to spend more of their own money on food. 

Students are already paying outrageous tuition, and stacking on this new dining plan is the icing on the cake — a big expensive cake that Tulane is shoving down students’ throats.