Presumably, most people at Brandeis have had a meal plan at some point during their time here. Whatever meal plan you ended up choosing, it inevitably included some amount of “points.” Even the cheapest plan has at least $60 worth of points, and any plan for someone who lives on campus includes at least $175 in points, with the most having $400 in points. There is even a points-only plan that includes $271 worth of points and nothing else. I just have one question: why?
What exactly are points? The name makes it sound like something you would earn, maybe as a prize from some event or something. The reality is much less exciting. They are dollars. That’s it. One point is one dollar. There is no discount if you get a lot of points; $50 gets you 50 points, and $300 gets you 300 points. There is no way to get a meal plan without points; they all include at least 60 points. Worst of all, unlike with regular dollars, any points that are left unspent at the end of the year simply disappear, forcing students to make unnecessary purchases.
Unlike real dollars, however, points can only be spent on campus. A lot of what points can be spent on are things that are or should be able to be purchased using meal exchanges. Some items at Einstein’s, like the big breakfast burrito and the cookies, can only be purchased with points. However, Einstein’s already accepts meal exchanges for pretty much everything else on the menu, so it shouldn’t be too hard to accept them for a few more items. One of the most popular places to spend points is Dunkin’. Located in Usdan, Dunkin’ is one of the best breakfast options on campus and is a truly iconic symbol of Massachusetts. However, their offerings are similar to other places that accept meal exchanges, and there is no reason why they cannot (for a full explanation of why they should take meal exchanges, refer to my first ever Hoot article).
The only place where points couldn’t be fully replaced by the meal exchange system is the C-store. However, as the name suggests, it is a store. People go to stores to spend money. And for those who want something from the C-store without spending money, they already accept meal exchanges for a number of offerings.
This brings me back to my original question: why have points at all? If one point costs one dollar and buys one dollar’s worth of food, why not get rid of points altogether? Most things that people use points for could easily be added to the meal exchange system, and the ones that can’t can already be purchased using real money. Given that points provide no additional benefit to students’ meal plans while raising the costs by hundreds of dollars, Brandeis should get rid of them entirely, or at least offer a point-free meal plan to allow students to save money.
