Some students at Syracuse University face a dilemma near the end of spring semester. It’s not finals. And it’s not finding a summer job, either. No, it’s the fact that their SUpercard Food is almost drained, and for the next few weeks, they will have to find ways to budget their meals.

Annabelle Pellerin, a senior biology major, faced this financial problem. Instead of using the low amount left on her SUpercard, she decided to save it by bringing her own pasta salad with broccoli to eat for lunch in the dining area at Schine Student Center.

‘I guess I’m conservative about it. I don’t want to spend it all at the end of the year,’ she said.

The moral dilemma of SUpercard sets in late in the spring semester, as the amount of money in the account cannot be transferred over to fall semester. Students either add funding to their SU food account in $25 increments on MySlice or choose to let the SUpercard go down to zero and rely on other methods to acquire food.

With too much money on their cards, student must find different ways to empty their accounts.

Beth Anne Kieft, a junior entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and public relations major, said she spends a good portion of her SUpercard money to buy meals for friends. ‘If I don’t use it, it’s money gone to waste,’ she said.

Kieft said she signed up to get a meal plan that placed $850 on her SUpercard. Now, she has so much extra money left on the card that she plans on bringing her friends and sorority sisters out to lunch at the Goldstein Alumni & Faculty Center.

‘They’re all for it. I ask everyone to go for lunch and they’re all like, ‘Yes!” Kieft said. ‘It’s more of just like hanging out with friends. I don’t feel like it’s giving it to charity.’

While some students squeeze pennies to make their account last to the year’s end, others are content to let their parents fill up their accounts.

Montana Pierri, a sophomore biology major, said she feels bad adding money to her SUpercard, knowing her parents will pay for it, but she does it anyway. She said she thinks of her SUpercard money as more of a credit card than a fixed amount of cash.

But in the world of SUpercard morality, some students take a middle road.

‘I’d say I’m more moderate,’ said Carla Ryan, a sophomore elementary education major. Ryan said she doesn’t like to spend her money frivolously, but her parents understand a bill at the end of the month for extra money for SUpercard.

‘I mean, they care, but I have to eat,’ she said.

Some resident advisers have a different viewpoint on why they tend to spend more money on SUpercard toward the end of spring semester. Liz Watson, a sophomore health and exercise science major and an RA, normally spends most of her SUpercard money at the beginning of the semester, but then feels guilty and begins to spend less.

As RAs are allocated more SUpercard money to spend than their residents, Emily Robinson, a junior acting major and an RA, said they tend to spend their money more freely.

RAs can choose either a 14-meal plan or an 18-meal plan. Watson started off the semester with 14 meals and an extra $160 to spend. She said she uses her SUpercard most often, but to buy small things like smoothies and coffee.

‘If I am looking at a bag of Swedish Fish, I don’t say, ‘Oh I can’t spend the money,” Robinson said. ‘I might be more inclined to buy that.’ With SU funding her account, she said she doesn’t have to be as careful in budgeting her decisions.

Kieft said she feels the need to use her SUpercard on more big-ticket items, like meals and desserts.

‘I think it’s less of being conservative versus not my own money argument,’ Robinson said. ‘It’s more of a point of convenience.’

ajswab@syr.edu

Published on April 14, 2010 at 12:00 pm