At the start of Autumn Quarter, Campus Dining Services began restricting when students could use meal plan swipes at Oxley’s By The Numbers Cafe from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays.
Oxley’s began accepting swipes in 2008, but in the last two years, it has resulted in long lines and slow service, said Pete Hackman, director of Food Services. Therefore, dining services decided not to accept swipes at certain times to provide better service to those not on a meal plan, he said.
Many students on a meal plan, including Blessing Ogbemudia, a third-year in biology, were surprised to hear Oxley’s no longer accepted swipes during lunch hours. Some found out after ordering a meal.
“I didn’t see any signs or anything,” Ogbemudia said. “So I was surprised when they said I couldn’t use swipes because all I had was my BuckID.”
Morrill Tower resident Melvin Adeola, who had to use BuckID cash to purchase his meal, said he will not return to Oxley’s during lunch hours. Adeola said dining services needs to make more of an effort to communicate the change.
“If you’re not familiar with it and you don’t have much time, you’re kind of forced to pay,” said Adeola, a second-year in biology.
Hackman agreed that more signs would improve the situation.
“I do think we could do better, but signs are on the doors and registers,” Hackman said. “We’re waiting on some larger signage that we hope to put up soon.”
Although some students do not agree with the decision to restrict BuckID swipes, it was made to sustain campus dining facilities, suppress the cost of the meal plan and keep lines tolerable for staff and those not on the meal plan, Hackman said.
“The burden of sustaining the wide variety of dining options shouldn’t all fall on meal plan holders alone with so many others willing to be patrons, too,” Hackman said. “We see that a lot of others in the campus community will participate at our locations.”
Hackman added that the need to serve a large number of people at lunch has led dining services to promote the “express” side of Oxley’s.
Adjacent to the café, the “express” side accepts swipes all day and features an expanded selection of sandwiches and a newly added fountain-drink dispenser.
Oxley’s joins the Ohio Union’s Sloopy’s Diner and Woody’s Tavern as campus dining locations that do not accept meal swipes at certain times. Sloopy’s does not accept swipes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and Woody’s does not accept swipes after 6 p.m.
