As Dining Services continues to grapple with a strained economic climate, administrators are noticing few improvements to problems that plagued them nearly a year ago.
Student business at on-campus eateries remains in decline, with fewer students spending JumboCash and more students electing to use Tufts' dining facilities, a pattern that mirrors closely what administrators reported to the Daily last January.
According to Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos, students are increasing heading to the dining centers to satisfy their hunger, a nationwide trend that is "very much driven by the economy."
Out of students enrolled in meal plans this year, a greater percentage selected the premium meal plan, which offers unlimited access to Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Centers.
"We've served significantly more meals to those who have meal plans than we would have before," Klos said.
Although the overall enrollment in meal plans has decreased slightly from last year, it is unclear whether this is an effect of the current economic climate or the graduation of the class of 2009, which was larger than average and had a more than the typical number of seniors on meal plans, according to Klos.
The increased enrollment in the premium meal plan has directly affected the use of JumboCash. Right now, according to Klos, the amount of money available in Jumbo Cash accounts is about 20 percent less than that of last November.
"The number of people who have chosen JumboCash as their meal plan is less than this time last year and the amount of money they've put into their account is down from last year," Klos said.
The 20 percent decrease, however, may not hold for the whole year thanks to new patterns in the amount of money deposited in JumboCash accounts. This year, students are putting smaller amounts of money into accounts more frequently, Klos said, and more deposits are made with cash. This reflects a change in consumer behavior from last year, when students deposited larger amounts of money into JumboCash accounts at the start of the semester.
The lack of a financial incentive for JumboCash may also contribute to its decline in use. When Dining Services first introduced JumboCash last year, they offered to add a small amount of money to a student's JumboCash deposit if it exceeded a certain amount.
Since JumboCash is closely connected to other meal options run by Dining Services, its decline in use will continue to affect campus eateries, like Brown and Brew and local restaurants that are part of the Merchant Off-Campus Partners (MOPs) system.
Though Brown and Brew expanded its Sunday hours earlier this semester, Dining administrators maintain that the decision was a response to student requests for more study space rather than a revival of business.
Brown and Brew reduced its hours last year because of a decline in customers late at night. The caf?© typically stayed open until 1 a.m., but cut all of its weekend hours and started closing at 11 p.m. last September.
"Through feedback and looking at what it really costs us to open Brown and Brew on Sunday, we realized that we could add back Sunday hours and it would cost something, but it would restore some students jobs and restore alternative study space and venue," Klos said.
Dining Retail Manager of Brown and Brew David Ford agreed that the decision to increase hours at Brown and Brew was based on customer service rather than finances.
"Last year, [Dining Services] wanted to streamline the department itself ... but the need [for] more quiet study space overrules that," Ford said. "Sundays in the past have always been slower than the week, but we still like to offer that service to the students ... to satisfy study needs."
The decline in student business is not unique to Brown and Brew. Dining Services has also noticed a continued decrease in the use of the MOPs program, which allows students to order food from various restaurants for delivery and pay by JumboCash
At Andrea's House of Pizza in Medford, a MOPs participant, owner Bob Iliopoulos has noticed "about a 30 percent decrease" in Tufts' student business, nearly double the decline he reported to the Daily last January.
Dining Services is taking measures to fight the steady rise of food prices. By producing more food items at Tufts, instead of buying from an outside source, they have been able to eliminate the markup and sell at a lower price.
In addition, Hodgdon Good-to-Go has also started varying the sizes of sandwiches sold to offer a variety of prices for students.
"[We're offering] more effective ways to spend your money and fill yourselves," Klos said.
