Compared to all the other 5Cs, Scripps College students pay significantly more for their meals:
At Pomona College, on-campus students pay $4,764 a semester for unlimited meals. Even Scripps’ lowest on campus meal plan, 12 meals a week, comes in at $4,827. Meanwhile 16 meals a week is $4,971 a semester at Pitzer College, $4,870 a semester at Harvey Mudd College and $5,171 at Scripps. Claremont McKenna College doesn’t offer this plan, but even their highest meal plan of 19 meals a week is cheaper than Scripps’ 16 meals a week plan at $5,135 a semester.
Due to these comparatively high meal plan prices, many Scripps students have adopted the practice of sneaking into Malott to save money. Its extensive outdoor seating options and used dish trays outside both entrances to Malott make it incredibly easy for students to do so — you just grab a used plate from the tray and walk in like you own the place. With the official station to clear your plates located inside the dining hall, this has become a widely accepted and effective method of walking in swipe-free. I too downgraded my meal plan to two meals less than I plan on eating this semester to save a little money with full faith that I can sneak into Malott, and have plenty of other friends who have done the same.
However, it has recently become clear that pressure is being put on workers to crack down on students sneaking into Malott, likely from it causing Scripps to lose money.
Interactions with the cashiers have become a lot more tense during my current third year in comparison with my first two: I’ve noticed other workers calling out students for not swiping in this semester, and friends have agreed that there is a growing distrust between Malott workers and students. Last week, a Malott worker followed my friend and yelled at her for walking in with a plate and not swiping, although she had earlier. Later, a worker called out another student and glared at my friend, mentioning that “so many people have not been swiping in” and not believing her when she said she already had.
It can be easy to blame workers, but the financial pressure clearly weighs on students. If Scripps had a cheaper meal plan, students and workers alike could all benefit from a decreased financial burden and more trusting environment. But this can only happen if we respect dining hall workers.
Our relationships with Malott workers are more important than we might think. These interactions only occur during meal times, but our entitled attitudes go beyond the boundaries of Malott. The United States education system is built on an outdated and deceptive meritocratic ideology that instills the belief in American children from a young age that with hard work, you will succeed. Through this meritocratic lens, us Scripps students who are completing a four-year degree are subconsciously socially conditioned to see ourselves as more successful than these dining hall workers.
While it might seem like we are at odds with each other, students and Malott workers share the goal of trying to succeed in this faulty meritocracy. At the end of the day, a shared sense of solidarity and trust would encourage all of us to keep going while supporting each other.
Malott workers are no less deserving of our respect than anyone else and we can start by respecting that they have a job to do too. These new worker attitudes are understandable, coming from the internal workings of a dining hall that has ingredients to buy and workers to pay. With the used dish tray outside both entrances, there are simply too many moving parts for workers at the cashier to keep track of. Students need to eat and have budgets to consider, while the dining hall needs to maintain its financial security.
There is a solution that serves both parties: cheaper meal plans. The other Claremont Colleges’ dining halls offer the same buffet-style selection as Malott, some of them even having more food stations, while having cheaper meal plans. The answer to reducing meal costs lies in changing the rules of swiping into the dining halls.
The other Claremont College dining halls have indoor seating, so students have to swipe in every time they enter and usually stay in the building for the entire meal period. Students at Malott, however, exit and re-enter the building at a much higher frequency than other dining halls, due to over half of its seating options being outside. It makes sense that it might feel tedious to make everyone swipe every single time, but it’s clear that the current system has led to a vicious cycle of students sneaking in which leads to the dining hall losing money which leads to stricter staff attitudes. The status quo is unsustainable.
In order to put an end to this cycle, Malott should make students swipe into the dining hall every time they re-enter. Students can reswipe during the same meal period, so even if they are clearing their plates or getting more food, it wouldn’t count as a new swipe. With the number of people sneaking into Malott decreasing, the dining hall would lose less money and should consequently be able to lower the price of the meal plan. We’ve seen this model work at the other Claremont Colleges — especially Pomona, where students have unlimited access to dining halls but the college can still afford to offer a cheaper meal plan.
And as a result of this swiping model, student worker relations would be improved with newfound trust.
With this new policy, there would be an increased financial benefit for everyone and we could foster a more trusting dining space. Implementing these reforms would be our way of telling each other that we know how hard making a living can be, yet we’re still rooting for each other and have each others’ best interests in mind.
Nicole Teh SC ’27 wrote this policy proposal for class then realized she could send it to admin. She wants feedback on it before doing so.
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