Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Bulk YCMP sales eliminated this semester

As of this semester, University of Massachusetts Dining Services will eliminate bulk YCMP sales, according to David Eichstaedt, director of Retail Dining Services.

Justin Surgent/Daily Collegian

Previously, these bulk sales had allowed students to use up leftover swipes to purchase cases of chips and soda at the end of the semester. According to Eichstaedt, UMass Dining Services promoted these sales by displaying cases of items that could be bought in bulk in the Campus Center for the past eight years.

Over this past summer, however, Eichstaedt and his colleagues, Executive Director of Auxiliary Enterprises Ken Toong and Director of Residential Dining Garett Distefano, decided to stop YCMP bulk sales beginning with the fall 2013 semester.

Many UMass students are unhappy with the policy change. Senior Alex Farmer said she thinks that the elimination of the bulk sales “is kind of stupid cause before we were getting ripped off anyways and now we are just getting ripped off, plain and simple.”

“I’m not very happy about that,” added junior Eric Hughes.

Eichstaedt said that while Dining Services understands the challenges that will be experienced by some students, there were several factors underlying the decision. One of the most important factors was that the bulk YCMP sales had “become too unmanageable in all aspects,” he said.

Eichstaedt said that the bulk sales had “created issues with campus police,” specifically with cars parked improperly near the Campus Center.

Also, Eichstaedt said that Dining Services received “complaints from customers that they were trying to use the Bluewall as a place to get a meal and the Bluewall was overrun with people trying to buy cases of [food].”

“[These complaints] started us down the path of bringing it to an end, it was just creating too many logistical problems on campus,” he said.

In addition to the complaints and the logistical difficulties, the bulk YCMP sales “didn’t go along well with our message with trying to be more healthful and sustainable and serve good food when were are going around selling cases of candy and cases of chips,” said Eichstaedt. “It just wasn’t the right thing to do.”

While this is the first semester that the bulk sales have been fully eliminated, UMass Dining Services began taking steps towards implementing this policy change last spring. Eichstaedt said that at the end of the spring semester, the bulk sales were moved out of the Campus Center and instead took place in the warehouse on Cold Storage Drive.  It was later decided that the bulk YCMP sales would be eliminated completely.

Eichstaedt said that in the end, “we wanted to have the meal plan be used the way it was intended, for students to eat their meals during the semester and not hoard swipes until the end of the semester and say, ‘I have 80 swipes and I need to spend seven hundred dollars in an hour.’”

Eichstaedt recognized that many students will have extra swipes at the end of the semester. In an attempt to reduce those challenges, he said that Dining Services has been “advertising throughout the semester that [they] are no longer doing bulk sales so that students are not in the situation were they get to the last day and have 50 swipes left.”

He added that YCMP swipes are viable options at on-campus food trucks as of a month ago. Other locations on campus at which YCMP swipes are accepted include the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, Roots Café and the University Club.

Nikoleta Nikova can be reached at [email protected].

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  • D

    DTPDec 5, 2013 at 10:43 am

    Gotta pay for all those new buildings somehow…

    Reply
  • A

    AnonDec 4, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    Its not worth it and I wish I had thought sooner about the savings of not taking a meal plan and instead paying for my meals. Any savings could have gone toward loan interest which over $2000. of it is going toward the meal plan. Even less if I’m not having to take the extra $2000. loan and pay interest on it. I have always thought it was unfair that we lose the meals and money we paid if we don’t use all our meals each semester, and they don’t even roll over from one semester to the next! It should be our meals we paid for them and anything left should roll over from semester to semester into each year we are at Umass. Now taking the option away from us to use what is left of the money we paid makes this even worse.

    Reply
  • A

    anonymousDec 4, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    They should allow them to roll over to the spring semester. It would allow students to buy a larger meal plan, giving them more money up front. Then, the next semester a student would be able to get a smaller meal plan and be about even at the end of the year. A majority of students (besides those going abroad or graduating early/late) would benefit from this and it wouldn’t be negative toward UMass.

    Reply
  • M

    MikeDec 4, 2013 at 7:30 pm

    How about swipe rollover? Didn’t AT&T do that like 8 years ago?

    Reply
  • D

    DTPDec 4, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    What’s stoping anyone from still doing bulk buys at the end of the semester? Just bring in a few bins/trash barrels/grocery carts. It’ll take longer, but it’s better than losing money. Massholes love circumventing The Man’s rules. Just check out the license plates in any NH fireworks dealer south of Manchester.

    And at the very least, what are they going to do? Arrest you?

    Reply
  • A

    AnonDec 4, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    Or they could just refund the unused swipes? They won’t, though, since that will require them to cut into their pockets.

    Reply
  • C

    cwienerDec 4, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    The question now is what benefit is there to having a YCMP meal plan? It becomes clear now that the university is not interested in giving back to the students. so why should the students give to the university? Instead of purchasing a meal plan students can instead use cash at all ycmp locations, and save money. Instead of spending ~$2,100 on 200 YCMP swipes at $9.50 each (total value $1900) students can just opt out of a meal plan, and use the $2,100 to pay for meals. Not only reducing waste by allowing students to buy less than $9.50 worth of food without being ripped off by the school for the remainder, but also promoting healthier eating. I can purchase one slice of pizza for $2.50 and leave it at that, rather than having to “get my moneys worth” and buying the pizza, a drink, chips, a donut, muffin and some candy. If the school wants to “be more healthful” they shouldnt sell the chips and candy in the first place.

    TLDR: save your money and dont let umass dining rob you, pay cash next semester and pass on the meal plan

    Reply