SmartChoice? Highly Doubtful

While the current outburst against the new meal plan (subtly labeled as SmartChoice) began only recently, the SmartChoice plan has been in the works for quite some time. Whilst conducting research on the plan, we found a 2006 article by The Dartmouth about the future of dining at the College.  In that article, the former Dartmouth Dining Service (DDS) Director Tucker Rossiter revealed that DDS was considering the idea of moving to an all-you-can-eat meal plan. Unfortunately for DDS (and fortunately for students), no single dining facility on campus was large enough to institute that plan. The idea to institute a meal plan was largely in response to a 2004 study of DDS conducted by Ricca Associates (a food services consultant). The consultants, according to former Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman, said that things were so bad they were “amazed that [DDS was] still open.” Now, after the administration has spent millions of dollars renovating Thayer, the all-you-can-eat meal plan once again looms over campus like an inexorably approaching storm cloud.

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