Incoming Greek students living in residence halls will be required to remain on a full LSU Dining meal plan instead of opting out and signing up for the Greek Paw Points Meal Plan, Margot Carroll, the assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services, said in an email. The new system will be implemented in the fall.
According to the Auxiliary Services website, all first and second year students living on campus, except for those in East Campus and West Campus Apartments, are required to have meal plans. Carroll said the Greek Paw Points Meal Plan, which costs $700 for 700 Paw Points, would no longer be available.
In the past, students were able to opt out of the University meal plans in exchange for the Greek Paw Points Meal Plan after joining a Greek organization, as some fraternities offer their own meal plans and include the cost in dues. Now, these students will be required to remain on one of the traditional plans for the full year, just as their non-Greek counterparts are.
“The proposal was shared with all impacted LSU departments, including Greek Life and [Student Life and Enrollment],” Carroll said. “Eliminating this exemption is in alignment with LSU’s primary mission and priorities, especially in these challenging budgetary times.”
Former Delta Chi president Jonathan Kloor said the option to switch to the fraternity meal plan has been available since he joined his fraternity. He said the change has come as a response to budget cuts as the University is “trying to save as much money as possible.”
Kloor said the cost of joining his fraternity is around $1,000, and the policy could make recruiting new members more difficult for fraternities across campus.
“They’re already spending a tremendous amount of money to go to college now, and the luxury and the desire to enter the Greek system is going to be harder for them financially compared to what it was in the past,” he said.
The default meal plan, which includes 12 Tiger Meals per week and 600 Paw Points, costs $1,956 per semester, according to the 2015-16 Greek Student Meal Plan Options document on the Auxiliary Services website. Other traditional meal plans, with more Tiger Meals and fewer Paw Points, are $1,985 and $2,129 per semester.
Carroll said the exemption had a “significant” financial impact on the students participating in the meal plans. The meal plan was designed to ensure students had convenient access to meals between classes and on weekends, but “the exemption created an inequity between the Greek and non-Greek students” in residence halls, she said.
“The change was proposed after careful review and comparison to best practices at other institutions,” Carroll said. “Research showed that the exemption was an uncommon one at other colleges and universities.”
Many of the Greek houses provide their meal plans through off-campus businesses, Kloor said, and some of those businesses operate off of minimum orders. If members stop signing up for the fraternity’s plan, they may not be able to use the service at all.
That scenario could result in a large loss of business for those companies, Kloor said.
Fraternity and sorority presidents held a meeting to discuss the issue. Kloor said several alumni spoke up against the new plan and one alumnus said it would discourage new members from eating at the house, damaging one of the core values of the Greek system.
“It’s going to make it harder for the chapters to truly get to know these people and understand them,” Kloor said. “The culture down in the South, everything revolves around food. When you take away a common thing like a meal from the new guys and the older guys, it makes it even harder to bond.”