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IU Mealpoints Refund Protest

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The Indiana University Mealpoints Refund Protest was a campaign started by 6 students living on campus during the spring of 1999. Its premise was based on the problem some students faced with losing their unused mealpoints at the end of the year as part of residence hall policy. Some students faced losing as many as 1000 points (worth $1000) because they couldn't use up all of their points.

Contents

Prelude

Mark Krenz, who lived in Eigenmann Hall from August 1997 until August 1999, learned in January of 1999 that the mealpoints that he was unable to use before the end of the spring semester would not be refunded to him. For him this turned out to be worth around $700. He wasn't able to use the points because he held a job off campus and didn't always get the oppurtunity to eat on campus. Feeling frustrated with the mealpoints system and sensing foul play, Mark decided to meet with the Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Division of Residential Programs and Services at the time, Bruce Jacobs. Mark also decided to hide a tape recorder in his coat pocket in order to record the conversation. To his surprise, Bruce told Mark that Residence Services could refund him his unused mealpoints because of his exceptional situation (having a 30hr/week job), but that they couldn't refund every student's unused mealpoints. Mark was very disappointed with the University's stance on this and decided to take action for all students.

The project

Aftermath

The school year that followed started to bring about change in the mealpoints system and the University reduced the amount of points that students must buy at the beginning, helping to prevent these problems in the future.

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