Now that J-Term is over, Gustavus students are returning to campus and getting back into their semester routines, including eating daily meals in the caf and tracking their dining expenses. It’s around this time that students who’ve been off-campus over J-Term, such as myself, take a peek at their caf accounts and have a mini heart attack. The large figure sitting staring back at me had me reeling in disbelief. How in the world was I going to spend that much on food in just one month? However, as it turns out, my situation was not as dire as it seemed.

According to Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Steve Kjellgren, Gustavus students are normally allocated a set amount of dining money each month, with a roll over of up to $20.

However, because the college’s two billing periods demand that J-Term meal expenses be split in half, the winter months are bundled together so that students receive one allocation for all of December, January, and February, with up to $40 rolling over into March.

As a result, a student who spends J-Term off-campus returns in February to an account overflowing with unused caf money.

My initial reaction was frustration, worry, and a little bit of indignation. I immediately blamed the system for what I assumed was a personal loss of $400, however it turns out that my reaction was unwarranted and uninformed. In actuality, the Gustavus J-Term meal plan system is reasonable and flexible, and it represents a vast improvement from the previous system. Through a historical lens, the current J-Term meal plan is an aspect of the school’s overall á la carte system, adopted in academic year 1999-2000 as a step forward from the previous system where students were billed for a set number of meals each day regardless of whether or not they ate them. According to Kjellgren, the costs for J-Term meals were incorporated into the fees for fall and spring semester, so, since students weren’t charged for them directly, the rationale was: “you didn’t get charged for that, so we don’t have anything to give you back.”

Through the current J-Term meal system, not only are January dining costs fully accounted for, but students are even given the opportunity to be credited back for that money if they aren’t on-campus to use it.

According to Kjellgren, the rationale behind this change is both ethical and practical.

“What you pay as a student, you should be able to get value from, and the college isn’t going into the hole because of it,” he said.

Another advantage to the J-Term meal plan system is its flexibility, meaning that students don’t have to lose that money if they don’t utilize the caf over J-Term. All it takes is a brief visit with the dining service office staff to find out if you are eligible to receive that money back as credit.

Student circumstances and plans over J-Term vary widely, from classes, to internships, to athletic commitments, and this way, all of them are taken into account and nobody goes hungry.

Lastly, the current J-Term meal plan should be appreciated because, frankly, a better alternative hasn’t been presented. According to Kjellgren, one proposed option is billing J-Term meal costs separately from semester expenses to students who will be using the caf, however this would underestimate the overall cost of attendance at Gustavus, hurting students’ ability to receive the financial aid and loans they’d need to pay those expenses.

In sum, every system is flawed, but the J-Term student meal plan should be appreciated by students for the systemic improvement it represents within the college’s history, and the flexibility it allows for all the different meal situations students might find themselves in over J-Term.

However, every system can be improved, and student anxiety over how much money they think they might be losing is a valid dilemma. Students have enough to deal with over the semester, and they shouldn’t have to deal with the added burden of financial worries in regards to their meal plan.

In the absence of a better, alternative plan, I’d propose that increased awareness is the answer. In my case, I found that lack of knowledge of how the meal plan works and of how to request credit back for uneaten J-Term meals led to the majority of my anxiety. If dining service reminded students to take a look at their meal account come end of February and inform them of their options if they have a large amount leftover, stress levels among students would be massively reduced because an immediate solution to their problem would be on hand. This can be done through mass emails or posters hung outside the cafe.

If you are like me and are staring down a huge amount in your meal plan account, it’s okay, don’t stress out, because there is an easy answer. By the end of February, just make sure you make a brief visit with the Dining Service Office, tell them your situation and why you were unable to eat in the caf over J-Term, and they will tell you if you are eligible to be credited for the money you did not use.