UCA is now strictly limiting students with the total access meal plan to 10 guest swipes per semester.
Despite guest swipes not being tracked in previous semesters, Fredricka Sharkey, UCA’s director of media relations, said the Aramark contract has always included “10 guest meals for the total access meal plan.”
Page 18 of the contract between Aramark and UCA, which applies from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024, states, “Total access includes 10 guest meals.”
Sharkey said, “Apparently, the register systems were not tracking guest swipes effectively, so the Bear Card office has since corrected this tracking issue. With the repaired system, the 10 guest meals can be properly tracked.”
Sharkey said she did not know why the swipes were not being tracked or how the system had been changed; “I am unclear about it,” she said.
Josh Gorham, general manager of dining services, refused to comment on Aramark’s role in the tracking of guest meals.
“I’ll need to allow Fredricka [Sharkey] to respond to this question,” he said via email Feb. 8.
After being informed Feb. 9 that Sharkey said she was “unclear” about the guest swipes, Gorham said, “I’ll need to continue to defer to Fredricka [Sharkey] to answer this question.”
As of Feb. 11, students with the total access meal plan have not been formally told by Aramark or UCA that there is a limit on their guest meals.
“No communication went to students to the best of anyone’s knowledge,” Sharkey said via email Feb. 12. “Aramark didn’t recognize that students were not aware until a couple of students recently mentioned it to a cashier.
“Aramark noticed last year when a cashier mentioned the guest swipes were not stopping at 10. The system did not have a way of tracking guest swipes as separate from meal plan swipes. Aramark contacted the Bear Card Office to see if this could be corrected — Bear Card/Transact manages this system. This error was thought to have been repaired shortly after,” she said.
Sharkey said, “The guest swipe is for all access plans. It is listed on centralarkansas.campusdish.com website under Meal Plans, < Traditional Housing Plans, < Total Access Dining.”
The UCA Bear Card website stating the meal plan rates for the 2023-24 school year states the total access meal plan “allows unlimited meals in the Christian Cafeteria only with $250 Dining Dollars per semester,” and does not mention guest swipes.
“When you hear total access, it makes you think it’s an unlimited plan, but this new limit on guest swipes makes the plan seem more limiting,” Jordan LaBreck, a sophomore cybersecurity major, said. “Before the limit was put in place, I would swipe guests in twice a week. This limit has caused me to be less inclined to go to the caf because my friends who commute to the college can’t eat there without paying. I was only made aware of the limit on guest swipes when I took my friend Elijah to the caf and was told I only had 9 swipes left.”
Tierney Earnest, a senior public relations major, said she was not aware of guest swipes until Jan. 12.
“I have the unlimited meal plan and was not aware of the guest swipes until I swiped for my brother one night,” Earnest said. “I eat in the cafeteria every meal, and on the weekends when my mom comes down, I’d swipe for her as well. As a low-income student from a low-income family, the cafeteria was sometimes all we could afford.”
Liberty Moody, an education major, said she frequently scanned in guests when she had the total access meal plan.
“Before this school year, I scanned in a guest almost every day — I had the total access meal plan then,” Moody said. “I don’t like the idea that there is a limited number of guest swipes for students with total access. The students have already paid for their meal plans, and they can swipe in multiple times a day, so they should be able to swipe in a guest with them. I do understand that some might take advantage of having unlimited guest swipes, so having a limit of one guest swipe a day — as opposed to a total limit — would make more sense.”