Northwestern’s dining committee needs to hear from NU.

The committee decided Monday at their first meeting to gather student input before making any decisions about a change to meal plan, committee chairman Mike Fong said. Fong, student services vice president for Associated Student Government, said the new subcommittees would start meeting later this week.

“We decided that one of the most important things is to gather input from the student population at large,” said Fong, a Weinberg junior. “Based on that we will establish grounds for discussions in further meetings of this committee. We will have a better direction and be able to represent Northwestern students more thoroughly.”

Last month, the Evanston campus was on the verge of protest over changes to the university’s meal plan. A discrepancy in the contract, since corrected by administrators, had eliminated meal equivalence between dining halls and a la carte locations for students on one of the two new Block plans.

Weinberg sophomore Michael Cohen, who led an Oct. 7 rally protesting the eradication of meal equivalence, said the subcommittees’ effectiveness will depend on how student views are assessed.

“I think that it sounds good, but it depends on how it’s done in practice,” said Cohen. “The dining committee said the same thing last year, but they didn’t really get the student body’s views.”

Cohen suggested the committee gauge views of the student population through online voting. He added the committee needed to come up with specific ways to determine student input.

“Otherwise, it just sounds like a lot of talk,” he said.

The dining committee is made up of 10 members, Fong said, which comprises six students and four administrators from the offices of University Housing, Undergraduate Residential Life and SodexhoUSA.

“We hope to meet in a relatively high frequency this quarter, hopefully once a week,” Fong said.

Fong said the meeting basically was introductory and summed up changes that took place as a result of meetings last year, such as devising vegan recipes and an increased number of menus with greater food variety.

He said no specific proposals to alter the current meal plans were discussed. Members of the committee steered away from this subject because they wanted to get adequate representation from students at large rather than interject the committee’s personal feelings.

“I didn’t wanna say, ‘This is how I feel,’ because we haven’t really gone out to hear what students feel,” Fong said. “And (our actions) should definitely be based on a broader population than just ourselves.”

Paul Komelasky, district manager of SodexhoUSA, declined to comment on what was discussed at the meeting.

Cohen said determining student’s views on the meal plans should not be a difficult process.

“It’s not that hard to figure out what students want,” he said. “Some students just want the ability to eat at Norris (University Center) a lot. It doesn’t really take rocket science to figure it out.”

Cohen said he thinks the traditional 13-, 16- and 19-meal plans should be left as they are, and that a Block Plan with a lot of Wildcat Points and very few meals should be devised.

“Meal equivalence should be an option, and they need to create a plan that accomplishes that,” he said.

Weinberg sophomore Dan Macleod agreed the dining committee should gather student input.

“I think that it’s a move in the right direction,” said Macleod, a Weinberg sophomore who participated in the rally. “They definitely have to evaluate the situation.”

Macleod suggested creating an online poll and involving more students on the dining committee. He said certain reforms should be made to the meal plan, including giving students a better value for their money and altering plans so they are not geared toward making students eat mainly in dining halls.

Macleod said creating a plan with more Wildcat Points and fewer meals would be a good alternative.

“It would be better than what they have now,” he said. “I think they tried to do that last year, but they didn’t do a very good job.”

Fong, who also served on last year’s dining committee, said SodexhoUSA representatives were cooperative with suggestions brought up by students on the committee when this year’s meal plans were created.

“They definitely listened to what we had to say,” Fong said. “If it’s economically reasonable, we can definitely have an impact.”

The Daily’s Janette Neuwahl contributed to the report.