After months of deliberation, Thelmo and Dining Services announced at Wednesday’s Thelmo meeting that they had finally developed a meal plan program with 100% approval from the student body. “This has been a long and drawn out process, but we are confident that every member of the student body will be happy with this system,” said Thelmo President R. Christopher Di Mezzo ’18.  Deviating from his prepared remarks, DiMezzo praised the new plan. “This plan will be fantastic; no one has ever seen a plan this huge and beautiful,” he stated.

Since September, a series of focus groups have been conducted to gauge student opinions related to on-campus dining options. “In our focus groups, it became clear that students want a singular plan that applies to students universally without regard to class year,” said Roberta McDuff, who serves as Director of Dining Services. The plan, which will be implemented in Fall 2017, will be known as the Thelmo Improved-Student Approved Meal Plan. While a previous draft plan included four separate options that would have grouped students by class year, all students irrespective of grade level will use the new plan.

“The new plan is based around a declining balance; each student will be given $1,100 in dining dollars for them to use over the course of the semester,” stated DiMezzo. When questioned about how this new plan differed from the current meal plan, DiMezzo defended the alleged changes. “It’s a completely different plan; the old meal plan was terrible. This meal plan has 100% approval; had we kept the old plan, it would have failed dramatically within the next year.” As students look towards next year, Laurentians are already reacting to the new meal plan. “I’m not really sure how it differs from our current plan, but I trust Thelmo to make responsible decisions for our student body,” said Ange Carney ’20. Other students were not as receptive to the new plan. “This is ridiculous; I have no idea how many dining dollars we currently get, but $1,100 is not enough,” complained Brian Boon ’18.

As students prepare for the implementation of the Thelmo Improved-Student Approved meal plan, DiMezzo is confident that the plan will be greeted with approval from students. “As I’ve told the press a million times, this plan has 100% approval,” said DiMezzo. “It’s fabulous, and people are going to love it,” he added.