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Nicholas Loving
Joshua McCloskey
Kimbrea Refore
Kelly Ziegler
Gokce Tekeli
WRD 111
October 11, 2015
Death by Dining
Over the last three years the University of Kentucky has set forth with a grand expansion
plan due to the recent increase in the amount of students applying for, and attending the
University of Kentucky. The motivation for this expansion can be traced back to 2013 when the
University of Kentuckys overall enrollment exceeded 29,000 students for the first time
(Blackford, 1) in this institutions history. Although this was a moment of extreme pride and
excitement for university members, no information is really attainable in regards to whether any
changes were either made or planned for the Universitys acceptance rate. This is despite a
constant, steady growth pattern in student enrollment statistics from 2008 to 2013 (Blackford).
Now flash forward to current day and changes are ubiquitous throughout campus; some of the
largest changes noticeable would be the construction efforts to make new classrooms, larger
housing facilities, and more parking for commuters; all focused on allowing more students to
attend. However, budgets being allocated to all of this growth is starting to affect the quality of
life that current students and potential new students are given while enrolled. One of the hardest
hitting among these is the Universitys change within their dining plan. Because this is such an
issue we must find out exactly how the University of Kentuckys changing dining plan affects
the ever-growing student population. This will help in coming to a resolution which will benefit
both the University and its students. (Nick)

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Imagine the typical college student setting off for the first time. These students are
usually away from the support of their family and friends; with little to no experience in setting a
budget, allocating funds, or time and skills needed to get a decent job. Because of this, on
average graduates with student-loan debt will have to pay back a little more than $35,000
before they can even get a career, even adjusted for inflation, thats still more than twice the
amount borrowers had to pay back two decades earlier (Kantrowitz). Assuming that this trend
continues it can easily be said that students
will continue to face financial hardship in
increasing numbers unless something is
done to alleviate the need for students to
spend more money than is absolutely
necessary. This ties into the Universities
meal plan because students are not being
provided with an adequate amount of food to sustain their daily lives. On average a student
enrolling for a full time semester at the University of Kentucky is spending at least $5,000 on
tuition and fees alone (uky.edu). After some simple math you should quickly realize that a four
year degree could easily set you into $40,000 off this expense alone, which sets the University of
Kentucky well beyond the average portrayed by Kantrowskizs image shown on the right. To add
insult to injury, students that participate in the meal plan are being forced to pay additional fees
to cover the expense of meals on top of their tuition. However because of the inadequacies
presented in this plan students are being asked to pay even more out of pocket to cover the
excess that the meal budget does not cover. (Nick)

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While waiting in line at the newly located Ovids in the 90, students wonder if they will
ever get their food. Everyday around noon, starving students walk to Ovids in hope of some
quick food so that they can get started on homework or get to their next class. They walk into
Ovids only to be greeted by a line almost out the door. As they wait, they realize that there is
only one register and the rate orders are being taken is astonishingly slow. The next thing
students notice is the single tiny grill that will be used to make food for the 30 or more people
that are in front of you before they even begin to grill your Philly cheesesteak. Sometimes at
lunch or dinner, students even have to abandon their food in order to run to class and make it on
time. Last year, when Ovids was located in the library, there were 2 grills and you could watch
the cook throw your food on the grill the second you ordered. The new Ovids could be described
in one single word, inefficient. Inefficiency is a common theme at almost all dining locations
this year. This is a completely unacceptable issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
(Ziegler)
College students often feel that there is not enough time in the day to finish homework
and other obligations.
Sophomore Richard
Thackrey states I cant
afford to wait 45 minutes
for food, I already stay up
until 1 in the morning
doing homework. There
are several solutions to this

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problem, the dining facilities themselves could be improved upon as well as the equipment they
are using. They could also go ahead and pre-make their food. If dining locations had bigger
grills and more employees than students orders could be filled in half the time. A good example
of this is Intermezzo, located in Patterson Office Tower. Everyday this tiny space is full of
people hoping to get breakfast or lunch. Everyone wonders why it takes so long for their food.
Then they notice that the grill being used is only 5 square feet; at most. This is not reasonable at
all, for the amount of customers that go through the restaurant in an entire day. The second way
service could be significantly sped up is if dining locations pre-made food. Ovids becomes
crowded at the same time every day they are open. They could anticipate the rush of people and
start cooking the most popular items before the rush and have them ready to go in food warmers
when the masses arrive. Students are disappointed in the dining services offered by the
University of Kentucky. Inefficiency in dining locations is causing students to wait an
unreasonable amount of time to get their meals which only adds anxiety to their already stressful
college lives. The University needs to look for ways to resolve this issue so that the everyday
burden on students can be mitigated. (Ziegler)
Coming back to school, things have been different. You wouldnt feel any differently
until you walked into Bowmens Den with some of your friends, to get something to eat.
Suppose you and your friends decided to get Panda Express. When you all walked over to Panda
Express, you looked at the meal plan poster and saw that the box was no longer on the menu.
With the meal plan box you could have the choice of fried rice or noodles with two sides and a
drink. What used to be considered for a meal swipe was no longer available to us. What you can
get with a meal swipe now is the bowl. The bowl comprises of a scoop of rice and a half scoop of

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chicken, which is devastatingly small. The old meal swipe used to give us more for our money.
However, the implementation of the new meal plan rules are more like a tease. How can a scoop
of rice and a half a scoop of chicken fill us up and provide us with enough nutrition to be
considered a meal? (Kimbrea)
You can hear many students complaining since the changes to dining have been made.
Many of the old dining areas on campus are just not what they used to be. Take Ovids for
example, it was a very popular place to eat last year
because they stayed open late and the food was well liked
among the student body. Ovids was located in the William.
T. Young library last year but is now located in the 90.
Moving Ovids to this new location made it smaller. There
is nothing wrong with a small location right? Well,since
Ovids has been moved, the opinion has shifted. Sophomore
Chyna Angelini, states the food does not taste the same
and they dont have everything that they used to have on
the menu. It is also being said that they cut Ovids hours,
they are not opened as late as they were last year. So what does this means for all those late night
eaters? They have to go out earlier to get something to eat. Then those people who stay late at the
library and leave with an appetite,built up while studying, will have to suffer and eat whatever is
in their room;if anything. (Kimbrea)
In the article, The Meal Plan, they discuss the issue of operating on students time. In that
specific section of the article, they ask the question, Should we expand campus dining hours?

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If this question were to be asked to students, then the answer would be yes. David Porter a food
consultant says some institutions open dining halls only for a few hours at breakfast, lunch and
dinner. Certain dining facilities here on campus serve breakfast till ten, and that is about the time
most students are waking up. So if they wanted a chance to eat breakfast, they cant unless they
go to Blazer which is located on north campus, or go to the Fresh Food Company located on
south campus. These are the only two dining halls that still offer breakfast even after breakfast
hours are over. After that, you cant use your meal plan until four. So you either go hungry
throughout the day, or you use flex money to pay for something to eat. Even then youre still
going to be hungry because the portions they serve now are smaller. (Kimbrea)
Students often complain they cant use their meal plans when they want to use them and
that the plans are not worth the cost. According to the Dining Services FAQ page, the reason for
limiting the holders use of their purchased meals is to keep discounts as high as possible.
(Kirk). However, the discounts never occurred, meal plan costs have remained the same
(Ziegler). I agree if we cant use our meal plans when we want then they are a waste. College
students are on their own time, its not like high school where we had a set time to eat lunch to
ensure that we had a meal. College students have to find/make time to actually stop and eat. That
can be hard for someone to do when theyre really busy throughout the day or if they dont get
done with classes till eight. If they want to get something to eat at Bowmens Den, they cant
because its closed. If a student lives on north campus, then theyre not going to want to walk all
the way to south campus to get something to eat. Students tend to be late night; having the dining
halls stay open later would benefit a college student greatly. It would allow them time to still

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grab something to eat and gain satisfaction that theyre getting usage out of their meal plans.
(Kimbrea)
On an ordinary October evening, a student was searching for somewhere to eat dinner on
campus and ventured into KLair inside of Haggin Hall, which is across from the William T.
Young library. He got into the line, wrapping
around the room, to order his food. After
waiting in the line for about fifteen or twenty
minutes, he is close enough to see the menu
and he gets an adrenaline rush when he sees
how many different options there are on the
menu. There are at least twenty or thirty
different options and this student was dying to
have the fish sandwich. When this person got to the lone young lady taking orders, she tells him
he has to pick an item from the Wildcat Deals menu, the far right menu, in order to use one of
his meal swipes, and that the other items can only be purchased with flex, or plus. This freshman
student, Jonathan, states, I was trying to use my meal swipes, since I always have such a hard
time finding places that accept them when I eat on campus, but even one of Kentuckys original
dining locations, KLair, makes them difficult to use (Allen). Many other students share similar
stories of the broken UK dining system. All one has to do is over hear conversations in class or
just simply ask a student on campus what they think of UK dining. (Joshua McCloskey)
In addition to affecting students, the University of Kentuckys dining system also takes a
toll on its employees. Everyday at various times, there are many UK dining employees on break

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that congregate at the corner of Woodland and Hilltop avenue. We are way understaffed for the
amount of students that we are serving everyday, stated a UK dining employee that wished to
be anonymous as they are still employed. The employee went on to say, All of the new
facilities are great, but we are still only paid a little over eight dollars an hour and at times we are
asked to work erratic hours (UK Dining Employee). For the increase in the cost of a meal plan
from the last academic year, students and employees should both be giving positive feedback if
the increase was for a better service. If employees feel as if they are given poor working
conditions for the amount of income that they receive, then they likely will not feel as inclined to
provide as good of a service to the customers. When students and employees are both unhappy,
it makes the whole mood in a given dining facility negative. (Joshua McCloskey)
Perhaps the some of the cost increases have a correlation to the expanding demand for
specialty food. One that has simply walked through UK dining locations can see that they have
expanded the amount of vegetarian and gluten free dishes. This also seems to be a national
trend. In a Todays Dietitian article, Mckenzie Hall explains that campuses all across the nation
are trying to provide improvised meals, so that everyone feels campus dining locations offer
something that they can consume. (Hall 18). So the question arises, should dining services at
universities, including UK dining, raise the prices on all students, for the five percent that require
special accommodations? Should the five percent really affect the other ninety five percent who
were perfectly fine with the food served at lower prices? Should service suffer just so there is a
gluten-free line? (Joshua McCloskey)
Ultimately it can be argued that there are several things in regards to the Universities
meal plan and its implementation, however until you take a close look at how it truly affects

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everyone then it is an injustice toward the students forced to follow these guidelines. After all no
one would think someone outrageous for complaining that someone stole their wallet. In fact
most people would advocate for those people. Yet when it comes to issues such as topics covered
during this essay, such as students being unwillingly paying top dollar for an ineffective and
unreliable meal plan, it almost seems that it falls on deaf ears. Rather than making excuses or
hiding the issue action must be taken in order to bring this problem to a conclusion. People are
not simply complaining about this, some may not have the money to pay for the lack in the
dining plan, resulting in malnutrition, and others as highlighted above may not be able to get
food at all if they do not have an atypical schedule or other obligations that they must adhere to
during the day. So in closing the student body asks, how much more will have to be done before
anyone cares enough to solve the inadequacies of the meal plan? (Nick)
For our video project we will enter several UK dining locations and examine the
problems associated with each location. We will also conduct interviews with students and
employees. The video will also offer suggestions to improve issues that have arisen in regards to
dining services. By conducting interviews, we will get firsthand thoughts on how the changes to
meal plans are directly impacting students. (Ziegler)

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Annotated Bibliography
Williams, Lauren. The Meal Plan University Business. Sep2013, Vol. 16 Issue 9, p42-45. 4p.
This article is relevant to the paper and to our topic so I thought it would be a good
secondary source for the paper. This article talks about universities meal plans and how
universities are trying to better their dining systems. There is a section in the article that I
focused the most on, which the section is talking about operating on students time. I
chose to focus on the time because time plays a huge role in a students lifestyle. You
have to make time for a lot of things and eating is one of them. (Kimbrea)
Angelini, Chyna. Personal Interview. 30 September 2015
Chyna Angelini is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky. I decided to conduct an
interview with her because she was at the university as a freshman and has witnessed the
changes to the meal plan. Chyna feels strongly about the changes made so I thought her
thoughts and opinions would be a good primary source for the paper. (Kimbrea)
Twitter. UK Dining. Pictures of Ovids in the 90
I chose this image of Ovids in the 90 because this image shows the audience the
difference between this year and last year. We talk a lot about Ovids in our paper so a
better way to show what the big deal is, is by having a before and after picture. You can
see how much space Ovids has now before they moved to the 90. (Kimbrea)

Golev, Atanas. The Year in UK Privatized Dining. 2014. ACE Lexington weekly newspaper,
Lexington. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
I used this picture to help show the difference between the new Ovids and the old. In the
picture you can see the multiple grills that Ovids used to use to serve more students
faster. The picture was taken by a local lexington newspaper that often does stories about
the University of Kentucky. (Kelly Ziegler)
Kirk, Marjorie. "UK dining is squeezing out students with unnecessary regulations and pricing."
Kentucky Kernel. N.p., 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 2 Oct. 2015.
This article was found on the Kentucky Kernel website, a local source. The author of this
article is also a fellow University of Kentucky student. She makes it obvious in her article
that she is very knowledgable on the topic of UK dining and meal plans. Throughout the
article, she uses very specific examples to show how the new dining regulations are
negatively affecting students.

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Richard Thackrey. Personal Interview. 01 October 2015.

Richard Thackrey is a sophomore student at University of Kentucky who is living in the
dorms and on a meal plan for the second year. He has witnessed firsthand all of the
changes made to UK dining services. I asked him questions regarding how he felt about
the dining changes and how they affected students. (Kelly Ziegler)
Allen, Jonathan. Personal interview. 1 Oct. 2015.
This is a University of Kentucky freshman who is concerned about the meal plan system.
0He lives on campus, so therefore has to deal with UK dining on a daily basis if he plans
on eating. It is important to identify different people or entities that UK dining affects. It
is reasonable to assume that if one student takes issue with UK dining, then many others
will, so this interviewee serves as a representative of the Kentucky student body. (Joshua
McCloskey)
Hall, McKenzie. "Campus Dining More Universities Are Serving Healthier Cuisine to
Students." Today's Dietitian 1 May 2014: 18. Print.
This source helps to compare similarities of UK dining on the national stage. Many of
the changes in food that the article describes are changes that are taking place at the
University of Kentucky as well. It provides insight to the other side of the argument as to
why some of the cost increases may be justified. It is simply a look at the other side,
which any good impartial investigator should consider. (Joshua McCloskey).
UK Dining Employee. Personal Interview. 2 Oct. 2015
It is important to identify other stakeholders for the issue at hand and these also include
the employees that work for UK dining. This employee wished to remain anonymous as
they are currently still employed and did not want their voice to known as shedding a
negative light on their employer. Employees of UK dining can provide a different
perspective that the general student does not see. It therefore adds more dimension and
complexity to the issues surrounding UK dining. (Joshua McCloskey)
Blackhand, Linda B. "University of Kentucky Enrollment Tops 29,000 for First Time."
Lexington Herald-Leader, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.
Although this has no direct ties to the topic at hand it provides the reader to get some
background information about why changes are being made at the University. It allows
the audience to see the bigger picture and feel more informed about the overall problem,
which in turn allows for a better solution to come from the argument. This article
strengthens what some may interpret to be bias into the frame for an argument.

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Kantrowskiz, Mark. Head of the Class. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2015.
This image was included with the next source and provided a better view into how the
University compares to the national average when it comes to borrowing money for
paying tuition. With this image the reader is allowed to not only imagine that the debt for
students has gone up, but to see its growth easily and quickly. This illustrates my point
when I am addressing the financial effect of the UK dining plan on students quickly and
much more effectively.
Sparshott, Jeffrey. "Congratulations, Class of 2015. Youre the Most Indebted Ever (For Now)."
Real Time Economics RSS. Dow Jones & Company, Inc, 8 May 2015. Web. 09 Oct. 2015.
Being that the dining plan no longer covers the complete expense for daily sustenance
required for each student, simple things like getting a meal everyday have become
another expense that college students have to worry about. This article Although it is well
known that a typical college student has debt even before he/she come out of college,
solid facts presented in this article. Allowing it to contribute to the overall support of this
argument because it provides evidence needed to strengthen points made in regards to
student finances.
"Tuition and Fees University of Kentucky." See Blue. University of Kentucky Registrar, Winter
2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Simply put this is just information about how much the University of Kentucky is. This
allows the reader to see a picture allowing for comparison about how much the
University of Kentucky is vs a national average. This presents irrefutable evidence about
how financially burdened students can be and allows for elaboration into why students
shouldnt have an inadequate meal plan, and how it can become a real issue financially,
providing more evidence to strengthen this argument. (Nick)