Beginning this school year, students can only use two meal swipes per designated meal time. Like previous school years, students are still allotted a total of four swipes per day, but the new policy restricts the ability to use them all at once.
Augustana Dining Services announced the policy change in an email to the student body at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, along with the new designated meal times and hours. The meal periods include breakfast from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., lunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and dinner from 4:30 p.m. to midnight.
The Westerlin Market, most commonly known as the C-store, is the only dining area open until midnight and is frequently used by students to redeem their meal swipes. Many students will utilize the market after athletic practices or events, or other campus extracurriculars, causing a rush of students in the store.
Fred Kurt, director of auxiliary, said these rushes were a part of the college’s decision to modify the meal swipe policy.
“Last year, we saw it really making it hard on locations like the C-store at night, when we’re doing 160 some transactions an hour for three hours in a row, and for our student staff monitoring and overseeing operations,” Kurt said. “So it made it really hard for them, and also it made it hard for them to keep the store stocked during those times.”
Kurt said he hopes the new meal swipe policy prevents rushes in the Westerlin Market, since students can now only use a maximum of two swipes per visit.
“So that means I can’t stock up for the weekend when I’m too busy to actually come and shop,” Junior Madeline Hutchinson said. “There are so many times on the weekend that I don’t have time to get stuff, which means I don’t have extra food in my house during the week.”
Hutchinson shops at the C-store frequently and said she finds the new policy “incredibly frustrating.”
“I want to be like ‘Oh, I’m gonna save up the swipes so I don’t have to come multiple times a day,’” Hutchinson said. “Now I can only say, ‘Oh, if I grab lunch this morning I can only buy one meal now.’”
With the policy being new as of this year, many students are still unaware of this change when utilizing their meal plan. Junior Declan Hutton works at the Westerlin Market and said many students still come to the C-store with the intention of using all four swipes at one time.
“Usually students would act pretty surprised, especially the returning students who would know that they would be allowed to use four meal swipes in the past,” Hutton said. “They don’t seem too disheartened about it, but I feel sad having to turn them away, especially if it’s their first swipe of the day.”
Information regarding the meal plan can be found on Augustana’s website, along with an email sent to all students at the beginning of the academic year.
