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Nicholas Loving
Joshua McCloskey
Kimbrea Refore
Kelly Ziegler
Gokce Tekeli
WRD 111
October 30, 2015
UK Dining Proposal
As leadership within the University of Kentucky it is of the utmost importance that you
know what benefits the student body, allowing them to continue broadening their lives with the
experiences and knowledge that can only be gained while in college. While academically the
University of Kentucky is arguably the best, it does have weaknesses elsewhere. One of the more
well-known issues within the student body is the recent changes that have taken place in our
meal plan. Regardless of whatever plan students opt into, they are not given the same service,
options, or quality of food that previous generations of alumni were granted. At first glance it
may not be apparent to others, however this change in the way UK students diet affects their
finances, nutrition, lifestyles, and both mental and physical well-being. The new meal plans
forces new and returning students to be bound by a strict schedule, limited food, and ineffective
service. As you read we hope to inform you in more detail how the Universitys changes can
affect every member of the student body. (Nick)
This is our second year at the University of Kentucky and we have witnessed the changes
to the meal plans. Being sophomores gives us the credibility to argue against the changes caused
by UK dining. We can argue that last year the dining experience wasnt the best but we never

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went hungry. With the meal plans last year depending on where you went to eat, we were able to
get a decent serving of food. You would be full and satisfied. Take Panda Express for example,
last year you could get a box or bowl with a meal swipe. A box consisted of rice and two sides,
while the bowl just consisted of rice and chicken. If we were to tell a freshman this, it would be
hard to believe considering this year a bowl is what you can get now with a meal swipe. What
good is a meal plan if you can only get so much food? It is said Universities are trying to better
their dining experience to better fit the modern student, keep enrollment and recruitment high.
We can see where UK has made those changes but those changes are only to the appearance of
the dining halls. An example would be the 90. Its new, fancy and when you walk in, it makes
you feel like youre at a very pleasant eating establishment. Thats one plus to the 90, the second
would be its an all you can eat dining location. So youre getting the proper use out of your meal
plan rather than going to Panda Express. (Kimbrea)
Well conduct interviews with a few of the dining staff and returning sophomores to get
their take on the changes to the meal plan. Theyre statements will support our argument
regarding UK dining. The staff and returning sophomores have the credibility to discuss the meal
plan and its change considering the staff work in these dining locations and the students were
here last year, so they have experienced the changes. Along with the interviews, well take
information from the UK dining web page to state facts about the dining halls and meal plans.
Well show some of the dining locations around campus and maybe get a before and after shot of
what the dinning locations used to look like. This before and after show will let the audience see
the physical changes that have been made to the dining halls on campus since they would have
heard about the changes from the interviews. (Kimbrea)

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Our video project will also appeal to our audiences emotions. Every time a friend or I
find about a change to a meal swipe or food location we get angry and frustrated. We want
viewers of this video to feel the same way. We want UK dining leadership to see how much the
new meal changes hurt the student body. We will accomplish this by presenting new changes to
meal plans and facilities and then interviewing students and employees to hear their opinions. If
the student we interview is frustrated with the new changes, it will further convince the viewers
to feel the same way. For the video, we will again interview UK sophomore Richard
Thackrey. In a previous interview he stated, The new dining rules affect students in negative
way and they lower the quality of life for students. The same principle goes for interviewing an
employee. If an employee says that dining locations are understaffed and they do not have
sufficient equipment to serve the amount of students needing food, then viewers will ask, Why
isnt UK dining doing more to satisfy the needs of their students? It is essential to have these
students and employees speak about their opinions on UK dining, it can never change or get
better until those disappointed speak out. Through this video viewers will see a collective
opinion of disappointment for UK dining and the way it is run. (Ziegler)
Food is a very important staple in most students college lives, robbing college students
of their food is a sure way to make them upset. Students at the University pay a substantial
amount for their dining plans, not providing adequate productivity and sufficient quality of food
is not acceptable. Any sophomore or upper classman student who still uses meal swipes will
understand the significance of this years dining changes. All our group has to do in order to
appeal to our audiences emotions is ask the appropriate questions. First we will find an
appropriate student willing to be interviewed and ask him or her questions, for example, What
changes have you noticed in UK dining this year? Which change has affected you the most? Do

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you think these changes are fair to UK students? When combined with the other aspects of our
argument, we will have strong reasoning to show how UK dining needs to be improved in order
to better suit the necessities of UK students. Are emotional appeals, in conjunction with the other
aspects of our argument, will show UK dining leadership that the students are not getting what
they deserve and pay for (Ziegler).
It is clear that the changes made to UK dining about a year and a half ago did not serve to
improve the service. The administration needs to realize that while many great changes are
occurring at this university, campus dining is not one of those great changes. The campus
authorities need to understand that Aramark is repeatedly finding different ways to squeeze every
penny out of students without students being able to squeeze every meal swipe out of
Aramark. This is an unfair exchange and it is time that students make more noise about their
dissatisfaction to those in charge. Employees of UK dining also need to stand-up for the
working environments they are involved in. (Joshua McCloskey)
The video will serve as a platform to convey a message to the administration at the
University of Kentucky. As freshman Jonathan Allen states, Im just a freshman here and have
only been at this school for about three months now, but I can say that I honestly dont think
there will be any changes that the students find favorable until we as the student body stand up
collectively against UK dining. (Jonathan Allen). Students need to help combat against UK
dining and hopefully the video will go on to highlight the problems in different UK dining
spaces, while also highlighting the disgust from students and even employees with UK
dining. (Joshua McCloskey)
The students that reside on this campus have to eat and UK dining has a monopoly over
campus dining. Administrators need to understand that students are not granted cooking

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appliances such as ovens and stoves in their dorm units, so the only way to get a cooked meal on
campus is through UK dining. The video will highlight the general living space that a student
inhabits on campus to help prove this point. In formulating this argument in the video, it would
be helpful to get the point of view of the administrators as well. It could also be significant to
hear an administrators reaction to the complaints of students. Much of the administration likely
never uses UK dining and has likely never even stepped inside one of the residence halls, so it
will be very valuable to add these scenes to the video as it is really the only way to depict these
settings to the intended audience. It is ridiculous how much the meal plans cost when it is
compared with how difficult they are to use. The video will also briefly explain and go through
this fact. (Joshua McCloskey)
Our argument will first allow the audience to understand that this issue is affecting
students in a very real way, it will prove that this is an issue by allowing them to see what the
typical student has to deal with due to the meal plans that they are subjected to, whether it be
causing them to go with limited food or potentially making them decide between a purchase on
food, or other essentials that could ultimately assist in profiting the University. The video will
also briefly touch on what the changes to the meal plan were, however this will have more
emphasis on the result of this implementation. This will strengthen our argument by providing
concrete evidence needed to back up the arguments regarding nutrition made in this piece. To
add to the argument we also mention that testimonials from the student body as well as members
of the food staff as a means to show that the information is coming from a credible source. At the
conclusion of our video we will implore the University leadership by leaving them with this
thought: although the university continues to increase its enrollment rate to numbers never seen

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before in the Universitys history (Blackhand) it is still wise to allow each member of the wildcat
family to experience the best of what we can provide them. (Nick)

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Works Cited

Allen, Jonathan. Personal interview. 1 Oct. 2015. (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. (Nick)

Richard Thackrey. Personal Interview. 01 October 2015. (Ziegler)

Williams, Lauren. The Meal Plan University Business. Sep2013, Vol. 16 Issue 9, p42-45. 4p.
(Kimbrea)