Being a residential campus, Knox College offers its students a mandatory board plan which includes various meal plan options.

Students living off-campus have the option to go off-board or opt for a commuter meal plan. Students living on campus are expected to stay on board. Knox College collaborates with Bon Appetit to provide students with a meal plan that costs approximately $9 per meal.

“Students cannot get off the board plan if they want. They must appeal and be approved,” Vice President for Student Development MarQuita Barker said.

If a student wishes to go off board, they must get in touch with Disability Support Services to initiate their request.

“Getting off board was a hectic process, I had to go from person to person and it was very time consuming,” fifth-year Sitanshu Satapathy said.

Students trying to go off-board must provide valid reasoning to do so, which may be religious, financial, or health-related.

“The most common reasons cited are financial or religious,” Barker said.

Over the current academic year 2024 to 2025, the board is priced at $5637, the entirety of which goes towards the college’s dining program. According to the college’s senior staff, the program generates $0 revenue, and only covers the costs of dining services.

With hefty operational costs, the college needs the maximum number of students to enroll for board. As per the data for 2023-2024, the total expense was $5.5 million and the annual cost charged to students was $5316. This concludes that the college would need at least 1035 students to pay for board services to cover their costs.

“The College subsidizes the expense of the dining operations with other sources of income such as fundraising and the endowment draw. The meal plan does not generate excess revenue,” Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Alec Guroff said.

General complaints from students include issues with the lack of halal options, different cuisines not being ‘done right,’ and the repetitive menu. The Division of Student Development at Knox believes that compulsory meal plans help provide students with reliable access to meals that fulfill their nutritional needs, convenience, and accessibility.

“Students without a meal plan may need to spend additional time grocery shopping, preparing meals, and cooking, which can be difficult to balance with academic responsibilities and extracurricular activities,” Barker said.

While Student Development believes that the meal plan is relieving the students of many responsibilities and helping make their academics the priority, some students feel burdened by it.

“Since I’ve been off board, I have been saving so much money and also been eating healthier.  If I cook with $30 of groceries, it lasts me almost 10 to 12 meals which is like $3 per meal. Compared to the [Hard Knox Cafe], that’s nothing. I am also not constrained by the caf timing anymore,” Satapathy said.

Fifth-year Marli Messner agrees.

“I basically pay zero dollars for food because I live off campus and I qualify for food stamps, so yes, it is cheaper, and even if I didn’t qualify for food stamps I would still be saving so much,” fifth-year Marli Messer said.

The number of students off-board was fewer in the 2018 to 2020 time period due to the pandemic. Many international students were taking classes remotely, and the Covid Standards of Procedures made it difficult to accommodate everyone. Since then, fewer and fewer students have been allowed to live off-campus, and subsequently go off-board.

“If students have individual concerns about dining options, they can reach out to the Student Senate Campus Life Chair,” Guroff said.