I was once a wide-eyed first-year student, excited to take on college and overcome any obstacle in my way. Of course, adjusting to an entirely new city, state, housing, routine and workload is a lot more difficult once you actually start the process. When you are new to a college campus, you’re still trying to figure out the unspoken rules of your school, the new faces, the unfamiliar classes and — more than anything — the food.
Pitt Dining options have drastically evolved over the years, so a shift in their Dining Dollar policy is not a crazy thing to ask for. In a recent effort to encourage students to try places off campus and explore local foods in Oakland, Pitt began partnering with local businesses such as Millie’s Ice Cream in 2019. However, these partnerships didn’t last very long and have morphed into new initiatives, such as the ability to use Panther Funds and Dining Dollars in select off-campus locations.
The dining options my first year in 2023 were a bit rough, to say the least. The main “hub” for on-campus food is our dining hall called “The Eatery.” The Eatery was never exactly the best spot to eat — half the dining hall was under construction for the entirety of the year. The few options there were often fried, greasy and unappealing. Most of my friends could agree that we would rather walk all the way to upper campus to eat at our second dining hall location called “The Perch.”
The Perch is notorious among students for being the “better” location for on-campus food, but walking far distances to upper campus multiple times a day is impractical and frankly not worth it because the overall quality of the food is still lacking.
These locations offer “dining hall swipes” as your form of entry. All freshmen who live on campus are required to purchase an on-campus meal plan, which can be pricey. When combined with the fact that the majority of the food at the dining halls is unhealthy or inaccessible for students with severe allergies, students tend to purchase meals off-campus. As I gained a footing in the big city of Pittsburgh, I, too, started exploring other options.
Aside from dining hall swipes, Pitt mainly provides you with two additional payment options for on-campus food — Dining Dollars and Panther Funds. If you’re already confused, don’t worry — so are all of the freshmen trying to navigate this complicated dining process. If you search online, Pitt says Dining Dollars “are accepted at any on-campus dining location. 25% of your Dining Dollars can also be used at select Pitt Eats Local off-campus locations.”
Panther Funds, on the other hand, are essentially a substitute for paying yourself. You have to load Panther Funds online, so any money you put in this dining option is straight out of your pocket and not included in your meal plans.
However, when you pull up Pitt’s list of local “off-campus locations” that allegedly take dining dollars, an array of false hope tricks you into believing this system offers a variety of off-campus eating that you can pay for with your meal plan funds. Popular restaurants and cafes such as Divvy, CHiKN, Atarashi and Stack’d allegedly take both Dining Dollars and Panther Funds. Yet, I personally have tried to use Dining Dollars at Divvy and Chikn so far, but neither has accepted this form of payment. Both locations informed me they only take Panther Funds, which — might I remind you — is payment out of pocket for students. This miscommunication is a big issue among the meal plan options because most meal plans include Dining Dollars, which students expect to use at these off-campus locations listed on their website.
I asked a fellow student, Malia Savas, about her experience with using Dining Dollars at Noodles and Company, and she told me a similar story.
“I got all the way to the front of the line, and was somewhat rudely told that they only take Panther Funds,” Savas said. “You’re already a freshman feeling nervous in a new place, and it’s hard enough to try and figure out where you’re going to eat in your free time, let alone the meal plan rules and options.”
Savas’ experience is similar to my own, and when you’re not expecting to get turned away because of your form of payment, it feels a bit awkward — like you did something wrong and should have known better.
But the illusion of choice causes students to end up spending their own money in place of the Dining Dollars they were attempting to use. The entire Pitt Dining experience is set up to encourage their limited on-campus options and even discourage students from trying other spots in Oakland. Not to mention, having this many options for dining payment gets unnecessarily complicated and deters people from purchasing meal plans, despite the potential they hold for convenience and affordability.
When students are already paying quite a bit of money for a meal plan, they are more inclined to stay on campus to eat the food they have already essentially paid for. If Pitt were to partner with popular student spots such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Panera or Papa John’s, and actually allow Dining Dollars as a form of payment, students would likely be much more inclined to not only purchase a Pitt meal plan past the first year, but to explore other off-campus locations as well.
Students already pay enough for a college education. It’s time to start listening to their feedback.