” The University of Akron Dining Services added a new meal plan that has been causing a bit of controversy. The university’s new Gold Meal Plan costs a total of $1,850. $1,400 is for the student to use at campus eateries or any of the local businesses off campus.”
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The University of Akron Dining Services added a new meal plan that has been causing a bit of controversy.

The university’s new Gold Meal Plan costs a total of $1,850. $1,400 is for the student to use at campus eateries or any of the local businesses off campus. The extra $450 is an administrative fee.

The administrative fee is nothing new, Zia Ahmed the Executive Director of Dining Services explains. The new plan is built to help students. The student is now able to keep track of how much money they are able to spend each week off campus.

Before students would never have been sure how much money was left for them to spend. Now they can always know. Ahmed went on to explain how the money will be used. The fee will help pay for the utilities, wages and general upkeep of the dining services.

The idea of creating a new meal plan was the work of Ahmed, who had the plan reviewed and approved by the Akron Student Government, the directors of Student Life and Housing and the Board of Trustees.

Many other colleges have a similar meal plan, such as Ohio State, the University of Dayton, Kent State University and other schools. One of the features that makes The University of Akron Gold Plan different is the ability for the student to use the $400 in a rollover fashion. The student is able to use the money as credit off the cost of the next meal plan they purchase or simply put the $400 back into the total amount they have in their plan, Ahmed said.

With this new plan students receive a 25 percent discount on main campus cafeterias.

Students do not have to chose the Gold Meal Plan They have four other more traditional meal plans to chose from if they would like to avoid the $450 fee, explained Ahmed.

The new plan was made to benefit the students not hurt them. Even with that being said some students feel it is rather excessive. First year grad student George Harlan said I wouldn’t buy the Gold Plan; I would go with one of the other ones,.

Freshman Steve Perkins said, The food isn’t that good, the service is really bad and they all have attitudes. I mean the fee is too much. We’re already paying for the food and now they’re taking more money away. It doesn’t seem right.

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