As finals week approached last December, freshman Skyler Mize was worrying about two things; her upcoming finals and the remaining balance on her required meal plan.

As a freshman, Mize is required to purchase a meal plan and live on campus. The lowest tier available for freshmen is the bronze plan at a cost of $1,410 per semester with a $190 maximum rollover to the next semester. Mize, bronze plan user, said she “stocked up on snacks before the break” to not lose the excess funds of her $190 rollover.

A resident of Morsani-Smith Hall, Mize was one of 5,205 students who lived on campus and purchased a meal plan in the fall, according to a record obtained from University Dining Services. Nearly 1,700 students who live off-campus purchased a meal plan. Numbers for the spring of 2018 have not been released yet. OSU has one the lowest buy-in for meal plans across the nation and among all Big 12 schools.

The OSU A&M Board of Regents approved to raise the cost of meal plans for the 2018-19 school year. The plans with the lower buy-ins, copper and silver, are set respectively increase 4.1 and 5 percent. The silver and gold plans have an average increase of 2.5 percent. The increase is set to bring in an estimated $650,000 in deposits.

The University Dining Services director said next year’s increase will help University Dining Services be self-sufficient and cover costs and repairs.

“The main two reasons for the increase are inflationary factors and needed repairs and maintenance to facilities and repair and replacement of equipment,” Bill Moloney said. “Our costs are going up. We’re also identifying what future repair and replacement needs there are and scheduling them for the future. There’s no tuition money, no state money that comes in for dining. It has to be self-supportive including paying rent and building new buildings.”

Although the administration is keeping the buy-in for meal plans low, the rollover amount is based on a percentage of the buy-in of the meal plan, Moloney said. He said that percentage is normally figured up around 15 percent.

Moloney said the number of students who exceeded the rollover wasn’t available, but he said “most students do not have a problem with meeting the rollover requirement.”

But other freshmen faced the same issue as Mize with excess rollover with less than two weeks left in the semester.

Robert Wilson had more than double his rollover amount with a week left in the semester. The native of Roland, Oklahoma, decided to spend rather than see money go to waste.

“Last semester, the last week I had $500 left. I had to go to Ranchers Club like three times and the rest I spent on other things,” Wilson said. “I spent almost all of it over three days and got under my rollover amount.”

Not only did Wilson not like the lower rollover amount, he would like to see the opportunity for freshmen to decide if they want to purchase a meal plan or not.

“I think the biggest thing is to ask the student if they want one,” Wilson said. We’re 19-and 20-year-olds as freshmen. We should be able to make a decision on if we want it. If we miss a meal, it’s our mistake. It kind of sucks that we’re forced to buy it when we can make our own decision.”

As Wilson thinks students should be given the option, others would like to see the minimum reduced from $1,410.

Stephanie Braden understands the basis on the requirement. She thinks having the money set aside helps freshmen out but believes the requirement should be more economical.

“Freshmen should have a meal plan,” Stephanie Braden said. “They should have one so they can have money to eat if they need it. I think they should have a minimum of $1,000 instead of $1,410 because even that $400 is a lot to some students. Sometimes you need it while sometimes you don’t and coming from someone who pays their own tuition, it’s a lot of money for it.”

While some freshmen would like to see the requirement change, Moloney said his department is constantly comparing their buy-in costs to other universities. He does not see OSU lowering the requirement. Moloney said the requirement helps the University Dining Services be self-sufficient and break even.

“The reason you have a minimum buy-in to support all the operations that need to provide service from early in the morning to late at night,” Moloney said. “You want keep the system big enough that it can sustain itself.”

He said the University Dining Services’ goal is to give students a low buy-in to dine on campus.

In the state of Oklahoma, OSU has the most affordable buy-in for meal plans for freshmen students. The University of Oklahoma’s lowest option is almost $900 more than OSU’s, costing students $2,308. The lowest option at the University of Central Oklahoma is nearly $200 more than OSU’s while the lowest option at the University of Tulsa is $2,137 per semester.

The lower cost is attributed to the structure of the dining services OSU offers, Moloney said. There are two types of structures with dining services, Moloney said.

A board dining structure lets students use their meal plans only at certain locations and offers all-you-can-eat options. The retail structure allows students to use meal plans on whatever they want on campus.

Most colleges use the board structure, Moloney said. OSU does not.

“We are one of the lowest because we are mostly retail,” Moloney said. “A retail option allows students to choose where they want to eat and how much they want to eat. That type of operation (board structure) is expensive to run with fixed costs that you do not have in the retail environment. Our goal here is for our students to have free spending and go wherever they want and use their meal plan.”

With 33 locations across OSU’s Stillwater campus, University Dining Services offers a variety of choices for students to use their meal plan account.

This semester, Mize doesn’t stress when it comes to using her meal plan. In fact, she likes the retail options OSU offers.

“I find myself at Twenty Something like three times a week,” Mize said. “It’s more convenient than driving across town to Walmart. It’s just steps from my dorm and makes things a lot easier.”

As finals week approaches this spring, Mize believes her finals will be her only worry that week.

“I’ve utilized my meal plan better this semester and now won’t have to worry about spending $500 before heading home for the summer,” Mize said.