The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/9/09 Section: Commentary

The end of the semester is coming up. Got any points left?

You probably do. And odds are that Dining Services will make it more more difficult for you to spend all your points before time runs out.

Dining Services offers three meal plans for on-campus residents: the cheapest "custom" plan, with no points, the more expensive "value" plan with 200 points and the priciest "ultimate" plan with 500 points.

These points are essentially debited dollars that can be spent through a UConn ID at locations around campus. And while thriftiness is usually a virtue, points, like flex passes, don't roll over from one semester to another - so if you don't spend all your points this semester, they're gone! The result is the inevitable end-of-the-semester shopping spree that leaves Chuck & Augie's packed and the shelves of the food court and on-campus cafés bare.

It is largely in response to this last-minute crush that the university imposes restrictions on the type and quantity of purchases that can be made with points. Most notably, the university allows only a total of four to-go food products and prepackaged beverages to be purchased at a time. But other measures have been taken against the last-minute dumping of points; for example, while in previous semesters students could order entire pizzas from the Pompeii Oven pizza place in the Student Union's food court and pay for these pizzas in points, points-using students are now limited to purchasing a total of four slices per person.

These restrictions are unfair and should be removed. Sure, Dining Services has the authority to do whatever it wants with its meal plans. But seeing as how students that live in on-campus, non-apartment housing are forced to purchase plans, they deserve a little autonomy over their points.

Those who want to buy five Diet Cokes should be able to buy five Diet Cokes. If they want 15 slices at Pompeii Oven, that should be an option, too. Really, students should be able to grab a hold of as much artificially caffeinated sugar water and grease-laden bread as they can afford - their points, their purchases.

Not only are the restrictions arbitrarily enforced, but they really don't benefit anyone except the slow-footed. If for-point products are cleared out near the end of the semester, why should the university complain? There's no real problem with leaving the shelves empty for the last few days. If a student with points shows up on the last day to find there's nothing to buy, well, perhaps they should've gotten there earlier. Think of lifting the restrictions as both patriotic and educational. The U.S. is supposed to be a free market society, after all - and this recession would be the perfect time to teach slackers the dangers of being on the wrong side of supply and demand.

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