The end of a semester at USC means sleepless nights, finals and people walking out of Russell House with their arms full of random food items.
We’ve all seen it. The piles of waters, chips and various non-perishables that form on the lower floor of the Russell House dining area near the end of every semester. Signs that remind people their meal plan dollars expire after finals, and to use them up while they can. Frantic students carrying whatever their arms can hold of food and drink products they might not even like.
It’s natural for people to want to use up all the money they have put into a system. We feel robbed and cheated if it disappears without being used. Hence the semester end rush to buy any and all remaining products Russell might have. But what if our meal plan dollars didn’t disappear on a semesterly basis?
It is made clear when purchasing a meal plan that any meal plan dollars that aren't used will be voided come the following semester. We can’t say we aren’t given fair warning. However, the concept of the university keeping unused money seems unfair in itself. Why can’t these meal plan dollars roll over to the next semester like Carolina Cash?
I don’t pretend to understand how the dining system works. I’m sure it’s a tangled web of countless, different, complex factors. However, no matter how hard it may be for the university to make meal plan dollars roll over, it is something that should be done. Keeping students' money after they haven’t used it on anything and not allowing them to access that money the next semester is unjust. And with the meal service contract coming up for renewal this year, there's no better time to create a more user-friendly dining system.
I speak for the girl staggering under the weight of three packs of water, for the boy bringing home five egg cartons full of oranges and for the parents when they learn that $150 of the $250 meal plan dollars they gave their kid went unused. Meal plan dollars need to roll over, for the good of everyone involved.