This semester, University students will get exactly what they pay for — at least as far as cafeteria food is concerned.

The University's implementation of a new, more customized, meal plan is the first step toward a "declining balance system" where students will only pay for the food they want to eat, said Kirsten Ruby, assistant director of housing for marketing.

Students living in University Residence Halls now have the choice of three types of meal plans: plans with Classic Meals and Cafe Credits, plans with Classic meals only or an All Cafe Credits plan.

Classic meals are "all-you-care-to-eat" breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cafe credits may be used to purchase either a Classic meal or items from an a la carte location, and students have the option of treating a friend.

The inspiration behind the new meal plan was simply to better meet the needs and desires of students, Ruby said.

"Students felt they weren't getting their values worth," she said. "With cafe credits, students pay for only what they want."

Cafe credits are the main component of the new plan, with each cafe credit having a one cent value.

Students also have the option of adding "extra credits" to their I-card, which can be used like cafe credits at most locations to purchase either classic meals or a la carte items. Extra credits are purchased separately and never expire.

"The reason behind this change is that many times, students would just want a sandwich or a soda, but even if that's all they wanted, it would still count as a whole meal," she said. "The reality is that if all you have are meals, people who eat less subsidize people who eat more."

Allowing students to purchase items individually also encourages them to make healthier choices.

"The all you-care-to-eat system is on its way out," Ruby said.

Despite the new flexibility and freedom it offers, the plan has received mixed reactions from the student population.

Christina Armstrong, sophomore in LAS and Snyder Hall resident, said that although the new plan has some definite advantages, she still preferred last year's system.

"Last year's plan just worked better with how I ate," Armstrong said. "I miss the fact that I could swipe people in and not worry about whether I have enough cafe credits."

Some students said they resented having to put in the extra work to calculate how much every item costs.

"I like that the cafe credit system is organized more like cash than quota, but I was annoyed that I had to figure out how many bags of chips I could get in exchange for one pizza," said Christian Smith, junior in engineering.

Clarence Walker, Snyder Hall dining services employee and sophomore in LAS, said he believes that some students might dislike the new plan simply because they are confused by it.

"Some people are not really knowledgeable about what's going on with cafe credits. If people would just read the Webmails dining services send out, they would know what was going on," Walker said.

However, Ruby said that dining services did its best to educate the student population about the upcoming changes in the meal plan system.

"I personally visited every single dining room. If there was a lot of confusion, I didn't see it," Ruby said. "We really tried hard to make sure students knew what was going on."

Another aspect of the plan is the wider variety that it offers, Ruby said.

"We are adding items every week based on what the students are asking for," she said. "At a la carte locations we can serve expensive things that we couldn't afford before, but if students choose to spend their money in that way, then they can."

Some students said they felt the prices for some items were too high.

"Can somebody please explain to me why one cookie is 65 cents?" said Christopher Harris, junior in LAS.

"Everything else is OK. I like the credit system, it's structured fairly decently and it does eliminate some of the ambiguity of the flex system, but 65 cents for one cookie is just un-American," Harris said.

Mike Jones, service manager at Snyder Hall, has been an employee of the University for 21 years and said it's always hard to adapt to change.

Jones emphasized the importance of understanding the bigger picture.

"This is a business," Jones said. "We want students to appreciate what we're doing. Students are our customers and we're always trying to please our customers."