New adjustments to the 19 Meal Plan have been made following a technical error found in the system, according to an email sent by Associate Vice President for Planning & Operations Ryan Van Ommeren on Oct. 16. 

The email said that students were only allowed one swipe per meal period; however, this glitch authorized students to use more than 19 meal swipes per week, along with the ability to swipe multiple times per meal period. 

This technical error started at the beginning of the semester, according to Van Ommeren.

The email also discussed  corrections being made to the glitch, and the enactment of the new changes after Oct. 19. 

“As many of you are aware, we recently discovered a technical error in our meal plan system that allowed students on the 19 Meal Plan to use more than 19 meals per week and more than one swipe per meal period, which was never the intention of the plan,” Van Ommeren’s email wrote.

In an email interview, Director of Auxiliaries Clinton Oie said the glitch’s origin was the result of a technical error.

“The ’technical error’ was that certain controls/switches that should have been in place to throttle the 19 Meal Plan that were installed in the past did not work this year,” Oie said.

According to Van Ommeren’s email, the latest updates to the 19 Meal Plan no longer restrict students to one swipe per meal period. Instead, 15-minute intervals are set between swipes and students are allowed to swipe four times a day.

“The big complaint that students and then especially the parents had was that the lunch mealtime is a five hour block from 11 to 4 p.m,” Van Ommeren said. 

Van Ommeren said another issue students faced before making the new adjustments was not being able to have an early dinner. 

“We put the controls back in place to make the 19 Meal Plan operate as it had been intended, but students had become accustomed to swiping whenever they wanted, so we discontinued meal periods, allowing students more flexibility with the timing of their swipes,” Oie said. 

General Manager at Sodexo Elizabeth Nepute said the largest challenge from this situation was handling the students’ confusion after the controls were repaired. 

“I don’t think we realized the scope of how many students were able to completely just use as many swipes, almost, as they wanted. It kind of blew up way more than we thought it was going to. So that was just kind of unexpected.” Nepute said.

Van Ommeren said that the adjustments were necessary because students quickly noticed the return to the original meal period restrictions.

“A number of students had already adjusted their lifestyles,” Van Ommeren said.

Nepute said she is in charge of running participation reports for meal swipe use. Nepute said she realized there was an issue with the system when she noticed unusually high participation numbers compared to the year prior.

“I noticed that participation was up 6% over last year, which is a significant jump. And I was kind of like, well, that’s interesting, you know,” Nepute said.  

Not long after this observation was made, the technical error was detected, according to Nepute. 

“We looked into it more and then just realized, oh, there’s a reason why it’s so high. It’s because there were no controls for how many people could swipe on a 19 plan. So, yeah, it was found by default,” Nepute said. 

After this incident, Van Ommeren believes that test runs need to be implemented more often to prevent another situation from occurring again.

“I feel like we need to run a test at the beginning of every semester to make sure it’s working right,” Ommeren said. 

Nepute said that there are currently no finalized plans for the meal plan system’s future. 

“Based on this experience, nothing’s been solidified. We do have a few things that we’re looking into or proposing. We like to propose certain things based upon data or feedback from surveys, but ultimately it kind of comes down to the school and the administration and what they feel like maybe is best for them as well,” Nepute said. 

Oie said students can contact him or Nepute for any issues or to provide feedback with the new 19 Meal Plan. He also encourages students to participate in Sodexo’s Culinary Council to have a say in campus food-related options. Additionally, Oie said to contact [email protected] for any inquiries.