Meal plan prices will increase next year, said a speaker at a recent Student Government Association meeting.

A guest speaker attended the SGA meeting in which several piece of legislation were passed. 

The Nov. 15 event began with the director of auxiliary services, Mike Stone, who presented about the upcoming increases in meal plan rates for 2012-2013. Due to a projected increase in food and drink prices for the year, students’ meal plan rates will increase by a small amount.

“We changed the meal plan structure in 2012-2013 in order to ensure sufficient funds to sustain a campus cafeteria,” Stone said. “This will take the burden off of on-campus residents to sustain our cafeterias. There are forecasts for food and drink price increases which means that operation prices are going to increase.”

The school will continue to require all enrolled students to purchase a meal plan. The commuter plan will be the smallest. 

“This plan is a way to minimally change the plan due to food price increase pressures and take the burden off of on-campus residents, who have to purchase the meal plans in order to sustain operation,” Stone said. 

St. Edward’s meal plan is cheaper than most schools, said Stone.

“Most schools have a much higher cost for their meal plans, and we believe that we have found a way to revise our meal plan to fit with these new food prices,” Stone said.

After this presentation, various new bills were brought to the table. The first bill was to establish a committee for an official class ring tradition.

“This will be the final step in this process and solidifying our position in regards to the development a unified class ring tradition.  This development of an official class ring will create a new tradition for St. Edward’s campus and increase the symbolic and social capital of the University’s community,” SGA senator Harrison Hadland said. “It looks like we will be doing a partnership with Balfour and have a committee to help with designing the class ring.  The eventual goal is to have this implemented soon.”

The vote for this bill was passed unanimously.

Another bill introduced was named Student Temporary Area for Testing Excellence or STATE. This act would aim to create a study area for students during finals week.

“This bill would help with the general planning of a study space for final exams coming up.  This bill … would help finance this study space because of the lack of study space at the library,” SGA Chief of Staff Le’Darrion Allen said.

This bill was also voted in unanimously.

Other bills introduced revolved around helping other student organizations.

The SGA meetings are open to all students who want to learn about campus events and put questions to SGA officers.