Let's face it, our dining halls aren't anything special. The food isn't great and there aren't many options. The majority of us could do better on our own. There's even students among us who have food allergies which limit our options even further. Rather than trying to make food we might actually want to put in our bodies, Residence Life has made it a requirement to spend over 2,000 dollars MINIMUM per semester on a meal plan to live on campus. Looking at the Silver meal plan (the cheapest plan available), which costs over $2,100 per semester, you would be spending about $17.60 per swipe when you factor out RiverHawk points. For commuter plans, meals run anywhere from 6-7 dollars, nearly a third the cost per swipe. This gives you 100 below average meals for a price at which you could eat Suppa's everyday instead and save money. Even purchasing meals individually at Fox costs $9.50 per swipe. Furthermore, many of us have kitchens in Perkins Traditional (described as a full kitchen on the res life website) next year and will still be required to spend an extra nearly 5,000 dollars on a meal plan even if we never step foot in a dining hall. The UML Dining website even states that "All students that live in traditional dormitories without in-room or in-suite kitchens are required to purchase a meal plan." So shouldn't those of us with a kitchen not be required to purchase a meal plan? By signing this petition, you support that Res Life needs to make the cost of the silver plan more reasonable, or eliminate the meal plan requirement for those of us with kitchens in our rooms. I expect the option to select a reasonably priced plan similar to those available or not select a meal plan at all. The Res Life office has not made it clear that we would need to purchase a meal plan despite having a kitchen and I refuse to take on thousands of dollars of extra student debt because of some technicality their office has procured in order to leech more money from vulnerable students with no means of paying for it.