University Star

Students hoping to load up on food may dislike Chartwells restrictions on the number of meal trades students can use at one time. However, the rule is not likely to change any time soon, officials say.

Kaylee Lorence, health care administration sophomore, exchanges a meal trade Sept. 10 at Jones Dining Hall. Chartwell’s is limiting the number of meal trades students may use at a given time.

Students eating on-campus at dining halls such as Jones Food Court, The Den or The Lair are limited to using three meal trades at once. The rule prevents one student from purchasing an excessive number of meals at once, reducing the amount of food available for other people, said Leslie Bulkley, resident district manager of Chartwells.

Bulkley said students wishing to buy several meals at once must return to the end of the line after using their first three meal trades. Students can then purchase three more meal trades after making their way through the line again.

During the rushes of students getting out of class, some of the more popular vendors on campus have a difficult time keeping up with the demand for food. Bulkley said this problem would be aggravated if students could purchase as many meal trades as they wanted.

Bulkley said it is unfair for students trying to buy lunch quickly between classes. She said students would have to wait an unreasonable amount of time in line if one person bought more than three meal trades’ worth of food.

“If we allow you to take five to 10 meal trades (at a time), then what happens to the students who want to go to class and we start running out of food?” Bulkley said.

It is not an option to increase the amount of food cooked during busy hours, she said. Many of the food vendors at Texas State have a limit on the time their products can sit out before being purchased.

Although the rule is in place to speed up the process of buying food, some students find it to be an inconvenience.

Anthony Monroe, mass communication sophomore, said he understands why the policy is in place, but disagrees with it fundamentally.

“I feel like as long as you paid for your meal trades, it should not matter (how) they are spent, because Chartwells will be getting their money either way,” Monroe said.

Frank Tallerine, finance sophomore, said he thinks the reasoning behind the policy is sound and its intention is good. However, he disagrees with the policy because he believes it will discourage people from visiting dining halls.

“I’ve found that students recoil going to a dining hall with a group of friends if they foresee more than three people going because of the policy,” Tallerine said.

Cashiers working at on-campus dining halls are responsible for enforcing the policy.

“I tell (students) they can get three meal trades at a time and go to the end of the line and get three more meal trades,” said Raeanne LeCuyer, cashier at Jones Dining Hall. “I don’t get paid enough to put up with that.”

Bulkley said the policy has been in place as long as she has worked at Texas State, and it isn’t going to change any time soon. She said the policy does not mean students cannot use as many meal trades as they wish, but they must wait to use them.