At U., no such thing as a paid lunch

If Wharton junior Cindy Dauber does not do something soon, she may find herself without a midday meal. Dauber is one of the approximately three dozen students who will have to either pay for 10 meals a week or drop their meal contract entirely because they live on-campus and are ineligible for Dining Services' lunches-only plan. Only students who live off-campus are eligible for the lunch-only meal plan -- Plan D. The action is taken at about this time every year, Dining Service Director William Canney said last week. Students who have been notified said that first a message appeared on the card reader when they tried to get lunch. Some students said yesterday that they have also been called and told that they will have their meal contract discontinued if they do not make arrangements to pay the extra money soon. The materials publicizing the different meal plans state that students must live off-campus to be eligible for this option. Students who drop their contracts entirely will lose their $50 deposit, Canney said. The delay in notifying students is due to the fact that the process of double-checking each students residence with the registrar is time-consuming and particularly difficult at the beginning of the year, Canney said. The five-meal program began over 10 years ago as an option for students who were required by their fraternity or sorority to eat dinner in the house or for students who ate dinner at Hillel, Canney said. The option was made available six years ago to all students living off-campus because of a convincing argument that students need the convenience of meals on campus during lunch, but should not have to pay for five dinners each week, Canney added. Canney acknowledged that it there is a discrepancy because students who live off-campus at 40th Street are eligible, while those who live on-campus at 39th Street are not. But, especially because of long lines in dining commons, there are currently no plans to extend to lunches-only meal plan -- nicknamed the "commuter plan" -- to students who live on campus, Canney said. "I am trying to serve the demand I have presently," Canney said. "People like to be served in an expedient manner." Dauber and other students said they are dropping meal plan entirely rather than pay the difference between the cost for lunches and dinners. "I never even ate dinner when I was a freshman," Dauber said. "They shouldn't discriminate against people because they live in the high rises." Dauber said she put her high rise address on the card she sent in to sign up for meal plan and said she was in the Phi Sigma Sigma sorority. Eight members of that house are affected by the crackdown. Kim Brodkin, president of Phi Sig Sig, said yesterday that for several years the house has sent a letter to Dining Service which said several sisters were "eligible for Plan D" even though they lived on campus. Dining Service has not checked whether Phi Sig Sig had an in-house meal plan for dinner until this year. "I guess they either overlooked us or they have a different policy," Brodkin said. Though she was uncomfortable writing a letter which misrepresented the situation, Brodkin said she was willing to because the policy was "ridiculous" and "absurd." "I didn't want to write the letter because I felt really bad about it," Brodkin said. "I was hoping the sisters would just get away with it." Brodkin said she personally has had no meal plan since her sophomore year when she lived on campus and was ineligible for the lunches-only plan. "Rather than even getting part of my money they didn't get any of my money," Brodkin said. "Economically it just makes so much more sense."

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