Walk into any
JMU dining hall and you’ll see an array of delicious food. Year after year JMU
is national recognized for its efforts in campus dining. However, what doesn’t
get recognized year after year are the meal plans and procedures that students
must understand to buy this nationally renowned food.
Emily Webber,
a freshman at JMU, experienced the difficulties of JMU meal plans first hand.
“I really had no idea what dining dollars or flex even was,” she said. “I was
so confused at what I could buy and what I would have to pay more for, and
how.”
Unlike
schools like Virginia Tech or other Virginia schools, JMU has a very unorthodox
system of buying meals. Other Virginia schools allow students to use their ID
cards as debit cards basically.
JMU employs a
punch system. These punches are what primarily make up a student’s meal plan.
Meal plans can range from 14 punches a week, to 10, or to 7. A punch has a
monetary value of $5.00.
When a
student walks into a dining hall, there are certain meals that are worth purely
a punch. These meals range from pasta at PC Dukes or a salad at Festival.
But, when a
student wants to go off the beaten track and buy something with a little more
food, they’ll have to use their dining dollars.
Dining
dollars are supplementary money that is added into a student’s meal plan,
depending on the plan. For example, if a student has a 14 punch a week meal plan,
it will come with 150 Dining Dollars.
So let’s say
a student wants to buy Chinese food at Festival. This meal will cost about
$8.00. The student will use his or her punch for $5.00, and then use $3.00 of
dining dollars to cover the difference.
It is not the
easiest system to master. It is completely understandable how Webber was
baffled by the system as a freshman. There is no real explanation of how
everything works. The F.R.O.G’s during freshman orientation give students a
condensed crash course but no one’s ever really listening to them or
understanding what they’re saying.
Most students
learn the system through trial and error, but mostly error.
However,
there are students who have mastered the art of the meal plan.
Senior,
Michael Koons, considers himself ahead of the curve when it comes to when and
where to punch.
Unlike the
novice “puncher,” Koons knows the ins and outs of the system. He has been on
the 14 punch a week plan since he was a freshman.
Prior to this
year, students with the 14 punch a week plan were only allowed to punch twice a
day. This year they have lifted that restriction, allowing the students to have
more freedom to eat when they want.
Michael Koons
has taken advantage of this new rule.
The rule that
lies in place today is that a student can punch twice before 3:30 and twice
after, if he or she so pleases. Because he lives off campus and doesn’t want to
go back to eat, Koons makes use of the unheard of “Quadruple Punch.”
“I go into
Dukes or Festival at around 3:15 and double punch,” Koons says. “Then I just
sit at a table with my food and wait until 3:30 and double punch again. Now I
have four punches worth of food at my apartment in one trip to the dining
hall.”
Many people
think that the meal system makes this harder for students, with the time
restrictions and things like that. But Koons, however, has found a way to make
his life easier with the new system and rules that have been put into effect.
Being the
“Master of the Meal Plan,” I asked Koons if he was ever confused by the system.
“I was
confused for maybe a day when I was a freshman here,” Koons said. “After
realizing once how it works, it’s really not that hard to master.”
If not going
back to his apartment to eat, Koons will almost always make the decision to eat
at the buffet-style dining halls like D-Hall or E-Hall.
“Why would I
use a punch on one burger at Burger Studio when I could go to E-hall and have
as burgers I want for a punch,” said Koons.
Making the
most out of your punches is a key characteristic of mastering the punch system.
Most students
never make it to the level of mastery that Michael Koons has reached, but he
left me with some words of wisdom to share.
“I think the
punch system makes things easier. You see that punch logo on the sign and I
know I can get all that food for just one simple swipe of my JAC card.”
