We, the undersigned students who reside in dormitories at CSU, Chico, petition the University through its President to repeal the requirement that we pay for a specified minimal number of meals from the campus dining halls without regard to the quality of food and food service provided, and instead permit us both a greater choice of flexible “meal plans” and the option to pay for our meals "on or off" campus according to whether those meals offered by various dining facilities are, in terms of nutritional and economic value, attractive to us and our pocketbooks.

We request this policy change to better assure that the meals provided are, according to the Chico State catalogue, "fresh, delicious, and nutritious . . . [and] reflect current culinary trends, and cuisine from around the world." While a worthy goal, this promise has not been fulfilled because of the requirement that dormitory residents must pay for food there regardless of whether it meets student expectations. This compulsory payment policy removes economic incentive for the campus food service to improve and conflicts with the principal of free market enterprise, dooming students who choose to reside in dormitories to dining on campus regardless of whether we feel we’re receiving value for our dollars.

Wherefore, we ask that we no longer be forced to purchase food at the dining halls as a condition of living on campus in a dormitory, but instead let the campus dining halls compete for student dollars along with other off-campus food options in Chico. If the campus dining choices are competitively worthy of our dollars, we will, given the added convenience of eating on campus, spend them there; if not, we should have the choice of eating elsewhere and, by voting with our pocketbooks, stimulate campus-dining halls to improve their offerings.