Probably my favorite thing to eat at Brandeis is Einstein’s Santa Fe Egg White Sandwich. Last year, I ate one almost every day for lunch. Sometimes, if I was in the SCC for a club meeting or other event, or if I just felt like it, I would get a second Santa Fe bagel. I was able to do this because I had a meal plan with 10 meal exchanges every week.

I assumed that I would continue this daily habit this semester. Over the summer, when it was time to pick a meal plan, I even convinced my parents to buy the more expensive option because I would use enough meal exchanges on the Santa Fe bagels for it to be worth it. 

So imagine my surprise when I got to campus this semester, went to Einstein’s, and was told that the Santa Fe bagel was no longer an option for a meal exchange. If I wanted to get one, I would have to use points or actual money. I begrudgingly spent points to get it, because the Santa Fe is just that good. Recently, I’ve started getting pizza bagels instead of Santa Fe’s with my meal exchanges, even though they’re not as good.

I’ve also heard that The Stein made changes to the meal exchange options there, including removing the chicken tenders as an option. Meal exchange options at The Stein were already pretty limited, so to those of us that don’t like burgers, the loss of chicken tenders is terrible. 

Sometimes changes need to be made to things like meal plans, and that is ok. What is not acceptable is misleading students about those changes. Nowhere on the websites for the Campus Card Office, which processes the meal plans, or Brandeis Hospitality does it mention any changes to the meal exchange program. These changes were kept hidden until after the vast majority of students had already paid for their meal plans. For graduate and commuter students, the deadline to request a refund had already passed before anyone found out about these changes. 

Had Brandeis made their meal plan changes public, I would have opted for the cheaper option. Whether or not they did it intentionally, by not being transparent about these changes, Brandeis took almost $400 from my family and others. The Brandeis community deserves better.

Editor’s note: After the writing of this article but before publication, Brandeis reversed course and added the chicken tenders back to the meal exchange options. Thank goodness.