Students can find many fast, cheap restaurant chains surrounding the University. While most of them taste fine and are relatively close to campus, they aren’t covered by the required meal plan for freshmen living on campus. Campus living should be convenient, affordable and enjoyable for everyone.
Students living on campus have several meal plans to choose from, they differ in their various amounts of meal swipes and Paw Points. These points can be used at the Student Union, Take5 and Outtakes, as well as certain grocery stores and restaurants that accept TigerCASH.
While students on West Campus have easy access to Chipotle, Five Guys and Smoothie King, students living on East Campus face the dilemma of where to find their meals on the weekends. The 459 dining hall no longer serves students after 2 p.m. on Fridays and doesn’t reopen until 7 a.m. Monday. Freshmen without a car must either make the trek across campus to eat at The 5, which is open on weekends, or spend money to buy food elsewhere.
Campus Transit will pick up students from their dorms and bring them to the Raising Cane’s on Highland, but fast food shouldn’t be the most convenient meal freshmen are provided on weekends. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be spent relaxing or having fun. On game days, it’s especially important to have somewhere to fuel up before baking in the hot sun all day while cheering on the Tigers. Students, with a meal plan, should be able to go to bed on Fridays and not worry about where they’ll eat for the next couple days.
Freshmen are no longer allowed to share their meal swipes with guests. Students are paying for those meals regardless and should be allowed to share the swipes with guests. The lowest amount of meal swipes available for purchase is 12 per week, costing $1,976 per semester, the most being 19 per week, costing $2,150 per semester. Very few people will eat at the dining hall 12 times per week, especially since the 459 Commons is closed for almost three days of the week. It’s very difficult to use 12 meal swipes during a 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. time window Monday through Thursday.  
Also, students on campus face a lack of storage in their dorms to harbor snacks or smaller meals to sustain them through the weekend. With minimal access to ovens and larger refrigerators, these students don’t have the ability to store sufficient meals to last them the entire weekend.
Students dining experience is not reflective of the amount of money they pay. Something must be changed. On campus residents on the meal plan deserve a better dining experience, one with less complications and less distance between them and their next meal. The fewer inconveniences freshmen encounter, the more they will thrive and enjoy their campus experiences.
Jordan Miller is a 20-year-old elementary education junior from New Orleans, Louisiana.