By: Tripp Vistica
Sept. 14, 2020
Before the beginning of the 2019 Fall Semester, the University of Memphis (UofM) switched food and service companies to Chartwells after a 30-year partnership with Aramark. However, there is one major problem UofM students have with the switch to Chartwells, and that is they will no longer receive a refund of their unused Tiger Eat$ money after each semester like they did with Aramark. Most importantly, Chartwells and the UofM had no way of knowing that we would have global viral outbreak causing classes to be held online, or that COVID-19 would close all doors at the UofM last spring semester. Now, the UofM has decided to give an $80 Tiger Eat$ refund to all full-time students only because the $300 for Tiger Eat$ is not included in non-full-time students tuition.
According to a Twitter poll, 71 percent of full-time UofM students said that they do use Tiger Eat$ while 29 percent said they do not. Due to COVID-19, some students are unable to use Tiger Eat$ because they live in a different city or state and take all their classes online.
UofM senior, Jordin Jackson, is a full-time student majoring in journalism and is currently living in New Jersey while taking all his classes remotely online, so he had to pay the $300 for Tiger Eat$ with his tuition but has no way of using them in New Jersey. Therefore, Jackson will be getting the $80 refund from Tiger Eat$.
“While I personally feel like they are robbing us that money, I do understand the reason behind giving us $80”, said Jackson. “To give 15,000–20,000 people $300 each, that’s $6 million the university loses.”
A lot of UofM students think it was a bad idea to switch from Aramark to Chartwells after 30-years with Aramark, because students had gotten used to how Tiger Eat$ worked with Aramark and haven’t gotten much of a chance to see how they like Tiger Eat$ with Chartwells.
“I definitely think the university made a mistake in changing vendors”, Jackson said. “While I can see the direction, they were going with healthier food options, but there were some changes that were not necessary, like the food options in the Tiger Restaurant and the Tiger Eat$ funding plan.”
Chartwells has not gotten off to a good start with the UofM due to COVID-19 to go along with many students being unhappy when finding out that Chartwells doesn’t refund Tiger Eat$ money.
“I say for any student that hasn’t used their Tiger Eat$ funds for this semester because they are at home, should be refunded”, said Jackson. “It is not fair that students who have never used nor had the chance to use them to not get their money back for a service they couldn’t use.”
Students that attend the UofM’s South campus and nursing school are charged $300 for Tiger Eat$ with their tuition as well, but they face a couple extra problems when trying to use their Tiger Eat$ funds. Due to COVID-19, all classes are being held online on the South campus. Also, the South campus only has one café on the campus, and that café is currently closed.
Senior, Haley Coghill, is in nursing school on the South campus as well as being a full-time student. Coghill lives in Southaven, Mississippi and her classes are all online, so she never commutes to the South campus or the main campus.
An online petition was started by Katie Millan on the website, https://www.change.org/p/university-of-memphis-students-refund-tiger-eat-to-uofmemphis-undergrad-students?redirect=false. “I don’t like getting robbed”, Coghill commented on the online petition for the UofM to refund Tiger Eat$ to all UofM undergrad students, and she does not believe $80 is enough of a refund from the UofM.
“I personally feel like the university is not taking into consideration that this is a very hard time for everyone. $80 is nothing on top of my already high tuition”, said Coghill. “I am unfortunately having to work 25 hours part-time on top of working a minimum of 24 hours at the hospital for school, just to make sure I can make my tuition payments.”
The UofM’s switch from Aramark to Chartwells has not made many students happy for many different reasons. However, the one thing UofM students seem to agree on is that they should get a full refund for all the unused Tiger Eat$ money after every semester, especially semesters that take place during COVID-19.
“I do believe it was a mistake, because it was in the best interest of the school and not it’s students”, said Coghill. “That $300 may not seem a lot to a big institution, but it can make or break some students struggling to just survive and get a better education.”
Tripp Vistica 