Nassau Hall, eating clubs close in on new meal deal

With the four-year residential college system less than a year away, eating club representatives and the University are currently hashing out the details of a potential shared meal plan that would allow students to split their time between Prospect Avenue and the new colleges.

Without a successful negotiation, students who want to be members of a club and a four-year residential college would have to pay both club dues and dining hall fees. The final decision, which the University said will be announced before winter break, rests on clubs' agreement to a reduced-fee plan for members who would like to eat fewer meals at the Street.

"Both the University and the clubs understand that student interest will determine the success of any shared meal plan," Executive Vice President Mark Burstein said in an email.

Currently, the eating clubs charge an average of $6,300 per year for membership, according to Burstein, while a block of 95 meals per semester, the minimum meal plan required for upperclassmen at residential colleges next year, costs $2,925 for the year.

Terrace Club has already agreed to hold a lottery after sign-in and room draw next spring, which will allow "three slots for people who want to have some of their meals in colleges," Terrace graduate board chair David Willard '60 said.

The meal plan for these three members will essentially be "the same as what we do for current residential college advisers, who pay less money for less meals," Willard said.

"We at Terrace tend to run pretty full, so we decided to start with three people ... We would rather be stingy on that," he said, adding that the club — which averages about 100 students per class — may change its policies in the future if it is able to take more members who only pay a part of the dining fees.

Other clubs representatives said they wanted to achieve a balance between cooperating with the University on offering more options to students and maintaining the clubs' financial and membership interests.

Quadrangle Club president Cody Sonntag '07 said in an email that the club is "currently in negotiations with the University, trying to iron out all the details, but contingent on a mutually favorable outcome, we should be participating in the program next year."

Cap & Gown Club's graduate board chair Bill McCarter '71 said that the club has been in discussion with Burstein ever since the proposal for a split meal plan was introduced at the board's October meeting.

"We are interested in the concept because the University is making us attractive," McCarter said. "[It is a] give-something-and-get-something situation."

University officials, including Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, have emphasized that the purpose of the four-year residential colleges is to provide better social alternatives for those who do not choose to join a club, not to undermine Prospect Avenue. McCarter does not think that Bicker numbers at Cap & Gown will be affected since "the people who are attracted to the four-year colleges are those who are not interested, by and large, in Prospect."

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Cloister Inn's graduate board chair Mike Jackman '92 declined to comment on the specific plan that the club is discussing with Burstein, but was confident that the outcome will be "a very good proposal on the table that is going to go over well with [student] population," adding that "students should wait before getting too concerned about it."

Jackman said that with this shared plan, "the University and the clubs benefit collectively," and that he is not concerned with the impact the plan will have on Cloister's finances or membership.

It is unclear if every club has agreed to the proposal in question, since the shared plan would involve a reduction of fees to clubs. According to Jackman, there will be "fine tuning because each club's economics are a little different, but beyond that, it's one plan that broadly applies to all clubs."

Tracy Solomon '05, former president of Colonial Club and member of the Task Force on the Social and Dining Options for the Four Year Residential Colleges, said that "split meal plans are one main issue, as is the affordability of clubs for students ... It is my sincerest hope, as it has been since I served on President Tilghman's Task Force, that there can be split meal plans with all the clubs, and not just a distinct few."

For McCarter, the bottom line is that "[Cap] could probably do something for [the University] on that split membership if they could make sure that we don't suffer financially for it." McCarter would specifically like the University to "offer in return a higher level of aid to the students for their board bills." The graduate board at Cap & Gown plans to reconvene on Dec. 13 to negotiate a final decision with the University.

The maximum amount that the University currently allots to the board portion of students' financial aid packages is $4,315, which does not fully cover any eating club's meal costs. In both his email and his address at the Council of the Princeton University Community meeting Monday afternoon, Burstein hinted that the University is considering increasing financial aid so that "these financial considerations would not be present" when students choose between joining an eating club and a residential college.

"The University has been working with the clubs to address this issue, and I am hopeful that together we will be able to do so in the near future," Burstein said. Solomon added that she is "optimistic that the University can address the affordability issue for the clubs."

Sonntag said that Quad is most excited about "the prospect of getting full financial aid coverage of the current economic gap between a meal plan and an eating club," adding that the shared meal plan itself "could be a great step in bringing together those who chose to live and live on campus and those who chose to eat out at the Street."