Although to-go policies in Allen Dining Hall have not changed, staff members have been enforcing the to-go policies more strictly than in the past.

Dining hall staff have been handing out to-go tickets as students walk in the door, paying careful attention to what is going in the Styrofoam containers and posting signs in the dining hall to make students aware of the policy.

“Actually the to-go policy has never changed,” Interim Director of Dining Services Tanya Sieber said. “We just probably weren’t publicizing it really aggressively.”

When students are dining in the cafeteria, which is an “all you can eat” format, no food is allowed out of the dining hall.

When students want a to-go meal, a to-go ticket is offered at the entrance of the dining hall.

A student cannot dine in the dining hall and then ask for a to-go ticket and take food out.

Sieber defined a full to-go meal, which she said would include an entree or sandwich, any sides offered on the hot line, a salad and fruit, dessert and a beverage.

“We were seeing students shove tons of fruit in their backpacks and haul that out, or take their to-go box and empty the whole container or deli turkey into their to-go box” Sieber said.

Students at Baker are complying with the newly enforced policies but there has been plenty of disappointment from some students in the way that the enforcements have been handled.

“I understand that individual actions have led to the new limitation policies,” sophomore Ryan Lasneske said. “However, there has been a disappointment throughout the majority of the student body.”

One of the concerns many student-athletes have is that they believe they need more of a meal than what is considered a full meal by to-go policies when taking a meal out of the dining hall.

“I absolutely respect the dining services for what they are doing, but I am a college athlete and need more than a general meal,” sophomore Alex Henning said.

However, what students may not realize is when there is abuse of the to-go policies, costs for the dining hall go up.

If the dining hall goes over budget in food costs, it could lead to possible raises of meal plan costs for the next year.

“Ultimately, if my grocery budget is over for the year, the only way we can adjust for that is to increase the cost of the meal plan for the next year,” Sieber said.