Students returned to Brandeis this year to find changes in the guest meal policy. In previous years, students who were on meal plans had one unused meal a week set aside as a guest meal. This year students on the 14-, 21- Combo, and Flex Meal Plans are only allowed five guest meals per semester. As in previous years, students who are on the All-Points plan do not receive guest meals. Barbara Laverdiere, resident district manager for Aramark said in an e-mail that the changes were done in conjunction with increased hours of operation, increased meal equivalency and other issues.

Mark Collins, assistant vice president for University Services, said this was done in a response to students looking for expanded hours of operation at the Usdan and the Shapiro Campus Center Cafe. Usdan is now open until 8 p.m. and Shapiro Cafe until 2 a.m. Because of this, it was necessary to cut costs in some area, he said.

Collins said that reduction of guest meals would be the best option mainly because students are moving away from the traditional 14- and 21-meal plans and toward an All-Points plan or one of two Flex plans offered students on these plans usually use most of their meals and would not have been accumulating as many guest meals under the old plan. He added that students on 21-meal plans will be hurt the most.

"We tried to look at the dining program as a whole and felt this would be a fair way to cover these costs," Collins said.

Collins has not received a lot of student response regarding this but only expects it to come from students on the 21-meal plan who might be concerned about losing meals.