The ins and outs of Tiger Bucks: why our meal plan isn’t necessarily evil

Graphic: Max Bennett

Only the most disciplined of Colorado College students can negotiate the last few weeks of eighth block without having to deal with the problem of Tiger Bucks. It seems like a constant struggle at the end of the year, as people with no money search for those who have, and those with too much at the end link up with have-nots. Tiger Bucks (known as dining dollars, or, the stuff that gets me into Rastall) are somewhat of an enigma on campus. Everybody has some, but where do they exist? What can I really use them for? And, especially, what happens to them when the year is over? 

Over the past week I tried to wrap my head around the system that on one hand offers us a plethora of on-campus options to eat and drink, and, on the other hand, forces us to shell out at the beginning of the year so we can pay over-the-top prices for everything from cereal to almond butter. For a lot of students, the second feeling is stronger than the first, and that’s not completely unreasonable given the predicaments that Tiger Bucks can put someone in at this time of year.

The reality, however, is that almost every college or university compels students to buy a meal plan, and the good news for us is that by every indication CC has one of the best meal plan systems around. Here are the basics of how it works: each of us pays for our meal plan, which goes into an account that the college controls. That money then stays with the school until Bon Appétit bills them per month based off how much food has been purchased. So, in other words, if no one decides to eat on campus, Bon Appétit makes nothing. This gives them a good incentive to keep innovating and keep the food interesting. 

As Beth Gentry, Director of Bon Appétit at CC, explained, the problem of having too little or too much money at the end is actually a good thing. The alternative is far worse. Gentry previously worked at The College of Idaho and Willamette University, where they allocated a certain amount of meals to each student per day. Whether those meals were used or not, the student spent money. This results in a system where meals are wasted and there’s no incentive for the provider to make it worth students’ while. They’ll get paid either way. Allowing students to spend as they please and suffer the consequences is a far better option. “CC has the most flexible meal plan system, definitely,” Gentry said. 

CC students do a pretty good job of dealing with the end-of-the-year crunch; according to Gentry, CC students spend upwards of 90% of all Tiger Bucks. That doesn’t leave a lot of wasted dollars. For those who run out too early, Bon Appétit wants to develop a series of smaller plans that could hold a student over for the last week, or few days, of class. A $50 or $100 plan would help students make it through the last weeks to a few days before summer. Additionally, for those with too much, a $50 donation can be made to the CC Community Kitchen, which was increased last year from $20. 

But what happens to all the left over money at the end of the year, you ask? It stays with the school, says Robert Moore, Vice President Finance and Administration, who oversees CC’s contract with Bon Appétit. But it doesn’t just get turned back into the system. As it turns out, Bon Appétit doesn’t actually own any of the equipment used to make food. This past year our Tiger Bucks bought a new freezer for the Preserve and several new waffle irons for Rastall. (Apparently there have been issues with people using knives to chip at their waffles, which makes pretty short work of the machines.) Buying new equipment, and fixing broken ones, is part of the life cycle that Tiger Bucks go through during each year.

So as things go, we at CC have a relatively flexible and manageable meal system. Bon Appétit says they’re looking for new ideas, so be sure to let them know. If students voice a direct opinion about meal times, food quality or prices, CC and Bon Appétit will be hard-pressed to ignore them. I know paying at the beginning of the year isn’t fun, and a lot of the food is overpriced, but it would be hard to find a college in America where that isn’t true. The system here is built in such as way that if we stop buying X, X will have to change. So as you negotiate these last few days of class, put your money where it counts, and continue to work toward improving our imperfect, but relatively good, set of Tiger Bucks.