To adjust for a rise in overall costs, Campus Dining Services raised the student dining fee by three percent this year, to $1,676 per semester.
According to Tim Reiss, senior food service director for Campus Dining Services, prices are consistently raised at the beginning of each year.
“We take into consideration food costs, health care costs, and that’s usually [how much] we go up,” Reiss said.
He noted that Blue Cross Blue Shield, the health care provider for campus dining workers, has increased prices by 18 percent in the past two years and that energy and poultry prices have gone up at an aggregate of five percent.
“We look at the whole market, as to where those prices are,” Reiss said. “We try to keep it right with the cost of living adjustment.”
According to Reiss, $225 of each dining fee goes to facility fees, which leaves $1,451 that are converted to 1,355 points, an increase from last year. The dollar-point ration is uneven because the facility fee does not cover the cost of the entire infrastructure, Reiss said.
“It is really that the whole piece goes to paying for everything on campus that you see, from labor to electric to gas to upkeep of vehicles, and not just for dining but everything,” he said.
According to Reiss, renovations made last year to Summerfields and the Kosher Kitchen and the creation of Pi Café had to be covered by an increased dining charge.
“As we upgrade and we update, there are costs associated with that,” Reiss said. “I think we’re trying to build a better program, and there’s going to be costs associated with building a better program.”
Manny Cunard, director of Auxiliary Services, noted the diversity of dining options at the University as an additional cost.
“We have a very diverse dining program, and the more diverse our program is, the more expensive it is to serve a smaller group of users, and food costs and labor costs go up,” Cunard said.
Though many students do not notice overall dining charge increases, item prices at the Campus Center and Weshop are often sources of contention. Weshop prices are consistently higher than those of local grocery stores, often by several dollars.
“The prices are exorbitant,” said Philip Hanoian ’07. “I’m not going to worry about it particularly until I run out of points, but when that happens I’m going straight to Stop & Shop.”
Because Weshop does not operate on the same scale as large grocery stores such as A&P and Stop & Shop, it cannot buy from the same food suppliers. Weshop is considered a convenience store because of its size and buys supplies from Associated Grocers, which supplies all convenience stores in New England.
“Grocery stores buy at such huge volume that there’s no way we could compete with that,” Reiss said.
Associated Grocers sells items at a higher price than grocery store suppliers, which contributes to the higher price of Weshop items.
As part of the campus Master Plan for construction, a larger Weshop will be built within the next two years. It will include new services as well as an expanded capacity for bulk purchasing.
“A larger Weshop should be able to do a higher revenue and prices should go down,” Cunard said.
Cunard also recognized, however, that prices on campus, particularly at Weshop, are higher than necessary. He is currently planning with the Dining Services Committee of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) to conduct a price comparison between Weshop, local grocery stores and local convenience stores.
“I think it’s our obligation as an institution to continually check our retail prices, to ensure that we have fairly and appropriately priced products for students,” Cunard said.
According to Reiss, the strong presence of union dining labor on campus ensures a higher price for food services.
“Over 50 percent of our costs on campus in general go to labor,” he said. “The average wage for an employee here is above the living wage. That is something that is very important to the students on campus, and to us as well.”
According to Joanna Lawler ’05, a member of United Student Labor Action Coalition (USLAC), Aramark’s effort to profit from dining contributes to high prices.
“Campus dining is expensive because Aramark is a corporation that strives to make a profit, which means they have an incentive to overcharge us,” Lawler said. “If workers get paid well it is because they have fought tooth and nail for every single pay increase and every benefit they receive, but it is not too much to ask of Aramark to pay workers a living wage. It’s a fundamental American value that one should be able to earn enough from an honest job to support one’s family.”
Reiss said that profit for Aramark represents less than one percent of total dining costs and that the University as a whole takes approximately 15 percent of the meal plan cost as overhead.
“Most universities take up close to 30 percent of the cost of the meal plan,” he said. “The University wants to keep that cap low.”
After the disbanding of last semester’s option of using points at Thai Gardens, Campus Dining Services are again without competition, which Cunard noted as another potential cause for price increase. He is currently working on ways to introduce competition into campus dining while maintaining the status of labor contracts.
“Ultimately our objective on campus by 2007 is to add maximum flexibility to the program but still have accommodations for labor issues,” Cunard said. “We want to do all of this and still be fully respectful and sensitive to the labor environment on campus.”
Mike Drucker ’05 suggested a plan consisting of fewer points, which would allow students to spend the remaining money at local businesses.
“I would go to supermarkets,” he said.
In addition to labor issues, the mandatory meal plan is considered important in terms of community building.
“We hope that dining venues will bring together various members of our campus community and that there will be opportunities to socialize, learn about one another, discuss campus and world issues, etc.” said Dean of Student Services Mike Whaley.
Cunard emphasized that, in addition to the price comparison survey by the WSA, he is open to further suggestions for change.
“We’re always available to looking at changes in our relationship with our Dining Services Contractor,” he said. “Once we have data and get student input we can look into changes in the relationship that will provide better services to the community.”
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