MSA petitions for more tetra points

By Josh Rutenberg     9/18/08 7:00pm

For some students, fall means a return to school life, colder weather and football. But to some Muslim students, this time of year is one for fasting, forgiveness and prayer, as they observe the 30-day Ramadan period. Since Muslim students who fast during Ramadan are unable to eat during the serveries' normal operating hours, Housing and Dining has been working with the Muslim Student Association to make special accommodations. After discussions last week, a university oversight committee agreed to add 65 extra tetra points to Muslim students' meal plans. Martel College sophomore Selim Sheikh led a petition to add 100 tetra points - 50 more than on-campus Muslim students are currently allotted - to the meal plan, since Muslim students miss 20 to 30 lunches in September during Ramadan observance. As of last week, his petition had gained 400 student signatures from a Student Association meeting and from SA senators at different residential colleges.

Sheikh said he was surprised by the level of support he received.

"I thought I'd only have half a sheet," Sheikh said, "but I brought [RCMAC] five sheets. I was really amazed and really surprised."

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During the first week of school, Sheikh submitted his appeal to the Residential College Management Advisory Committee. Last Thursday, the RCMAC informed him that they had agreed to increase the allotted tetra points from 50 to 65.

This is not the first time H&D has addressed the issue of Ramadan with the on-campus meal plan. In fall 2004, H&D began a reimbursement policy for on-campus Muslim students observing Ramadan, Residential Dining Manager Julie Bogar said. This policy added 50 tetra points to students' accounts and ensured that serveries provide a breakfast bag, a prepared breakfast for students to eat before dawn in accordance with Ramadan. RCMAC considered crediting money to the MSA, crediting money back to students' accounts, and providing credits to the bookstore. In the end, doubling the amount of tetra points to bridge the financial gap was the easiest compensation method.

Bogar said she meets with the Muslim Student Association annually to discuss changes to the breakfast bag program.

To be part of the program, students go through the MSA, which provides a roster of student names and identification numbers to Bogar, who makes the tetra point adjustments and allocates breakfast bags to the students.

This year, however, Bogar said the program's participation has been the lowest in its history, with 12 students on the roster. Of those, Bogar said most have not been picking up their prepared breakfasts this month.

Bogar said RCMAC was reluctant to agree to the proposed 100 tetra points because of the calculation of meal plan costs. She said Muslim students would only miss lunch, after the prepared breakfast and grabbing a late dinner at the servery, which is open until 7:30 p.m., and saving the food to eat after dusk. Though a typical lunch costs $6.40, only about $2 goes toward food costs, Bogar said. The rest goes toward staff and operating costs.

Bogar said the 15 extra tetra points for this year will have to be reconsidered as future meal prices change.

"You estimate a little over two dollars in food costs times the number of meals ... $15 extra is effective for this year, but as prices and meal plans change, that'll have to be taken into consideration [in the future]," Bogar said.

Residential Dining Director David McDonald said he is frequently asked to offer alternative food options for students who follow strict dietary patterns, such as Olympic athletes and religious students. Two years ago, North Servery featured halal food, or food that conforms to Islamic dietary constraints.

"We've stocked frozen kosher meals ... offered fish on Fridays during Lent, matzo in the serveries during Passover, and that sort of thing," McDonald said.

Sheikh said he believes the main reason more students did not sign the petition was a lack of knowledge about how the system would work and what would prevent non-Muslim students from signing up merely for the tetra reimbursement. However, Sheikh claims that, due to the method of requiring students to sign up through the MSA, this would not be a problem.

"Mr. McDonald has been approached every year," said Sheikh. "But no one has pushed hard enough."

Jocelyn Wright contributed to this article.

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