When freshmen step foot on Harding’s campus to begin their college journey, they have some very important decisions to make. They have to decide what classes to take, what dorm to live in and where they want to sit in chapel. I feel like one of the hardest decisions a new student has to make is choosing which meal plan will suit them.

The lowest meal plan that a freshman is allowed to have is 210 entries to the cafeteria and $200 of DCB. This meal plan costs $1,613 and allows for students to have three meals a day, but I don’t know many college students who have the time to eat three solid meals every single day.

Sophomores, juniors and seniors are required to have a meal plan if they are not living off campus or living in an on-campus apartment. Even students living in Searcy Hall and Cone Hall, which both have small kitchens, are still required to have a meal plan. I am by no means saying that Harding should do away with the cafeteria and student center restaurants; I don’t know what students would do without access to a chicken biscuit every morning. I am simply proposing a few ideas that will give students more flexibility in choosing a meal plan.

Many universities give students the ability to use their student IDs in more places than just the cafeteria. Freed-Hardeman University allows their students to also use their cafeteria swipes for the restaurants in the student center during the hours that the cafeteria is open. If Harding students had more variety to choose from, using all their cafeteria swipes would feel less like an obligation.

Another idea that I would like to propose is turning the Harding student ID cards into more of a debit card that can be used at any restaurant or shopping center in Searcy. Parents and students would be able to control how much money they put on their debit cards. This would give students the opportunity to have better choices about what they eat.

The final proposal I have for meal plans at Harding is to give students the option of how many swipes they want. No matter what classification a student is, they should have the choice to decide how many swipes they need for a semester. I believe that freshmen should at least have the option of choosing the meal plan that gives 100 entries into the cafeteria and $300 of DCB. I know that this meal plan would have been perfect for me as a freshman.

I believe that changing the meal plans at Harding will give students comfort in knowing they aren’t wasting a large sum of money at the end of each semester. This would make the transition to college less stressful and more enjoyable for incoming freshmen.