The first couple weeks of the 2022 spring semester, dining changes on campus occurred. Students with meal plans have gone from not being able to dine-in at the Cardinal's Nest to receiving fewer slices of pizza at the OtterDen for the same cost. This has created an uproar of the belief that students are not getting the amount of food as what they are paying for.
The change that students have been vocal about is the OtterDen’s switch to providing two slices of pizza, as opposed to the previous number of three, with every meal swipe. This new arrangement was intended to benefit students by giving everyone the same amount of pizza, rather than smaller, uneven pieces.
Sophomore Justin Holtcamp did the math on the pizza slices being cut. The OtterDen pizzas used to be divided into ten slices, therefore, people were getting nearly a third of a pizza with each meal swipe.
The intent of decreasing the number of slices was to create consistency in servings, but that's not all the students were noticing.
"The thing I didn't like was honestly the way they were marketing it,” Holtcamp said. “They were using the words ‘more’ and stuff, and I just thought that was false advertising.”
Parkhurst Dining General Manager, Bill Cochrane, conducted the change in the first place based on students' feedback. He noticed the vocalizations from people who bought individual slices differed from those that used meal swipes.
“The number one thing was that the slices were inconsistent for people who were buying slices,” Cochrane said. “Remember, it’s two different business things that are happening. There’s the meal swipe, then there’s people who just want a slice."
Although, the decrease in slices was not students’ only concern. Not having the option of different pizza combinations to customize their meal was a concerning factor.
“There are still three choices, but I can't have one of each, like I can't choose to mix that as I would,” Holtcamp said. “I liked having the variability of option."
Despite the limitations that come with only two slices, The OtterDen promised this to be the fix for all the inconsistency issues.
Social: The OtterDen is no longer giving out three slices of pizza per meal swipe.
