An old policy now is being strictly enforced in the cafeteria.
Signing a slip of paper is no longer an alternative to bringing a student ID.
“This isn’t a new policy,” Director of Food Service Darrell Bowersox said. “It’s more that we’re trying to get to where we should be.”
Students now are being turned away if they cannot present their Baker student ID or if they are not supposed to be signing in with a sports team or an activity like a language table.
Before the policy was enforced Norma Sconce, food service line server, said it wasn’t uncommon for two or three people to come in at each meal without their cards. Many of them signed their names illegibly, so they could not be charged.
Catering Coordinator Tanya Sieber said the regularity of people signing in so that their names could not be read coupled with the logistics of the extra work. Looking up a student and recording their meal at a later date made it important to enforce the rule.
“There’s no way to know that every student we let sign in has a meal plan,” Sieber said. “It’s a problem for us that we don’t know how many meals a student has left. If you’re out, then we just let you eat for free. There comes a point we had to start holding students accountable.”
Junior Caitlin Murray accidentally has left her student ID behind before, but never when she was planning on going to the cafeteria, so she understands accidents happen. She doesn’t understand when people do it on purpose.
“I don’t think that’s fair,” she said. “If you’re getting food to eat, you should have to pay for it.”
Murray said with the elimination of student sign-in at the cafeteria, lines move a lot quicker.
Sieber said it will also save students and the university money.
“Taken over an entire year, the cafeteria could easily lose about $8,000 a year, which would have to be passed on to students next year, in the form of more expensive meal plans,” she said.
So far, the enforcement of the policy has gone better than expected, Bowersox said. He was anticipating more upset students, especially after the backlash over “Trayless Thursdays” last year, which was an incentive to abstain from using trays once a week in order to save water and energy and reduce waste.
“I think when it comes down to it, people know what’s right,” Bowersox said.
For students and staff without meal plans, breakfast can be purchased for $5, lunch for $7 and dinner for $8. The cafeteria accepts cash, checks and credit cards.