The price for housing and meals plans, along with tuition, increased at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting.

Students will see a 3 percent increase in housing and meal plan costs for the 2012-13 academic year, averaging out to about $400. The reason for the rise was not explained at the meeting. With the housing and meal plan cost increases, students deserve more for their money.

A popular meal plan for students, especially freshmen, is a 14-meal plan, which costs $3,120 this academic year. The plan includes 14 meals per week, 10 guest meals and $155 in SUperFood money. The cost per meal in a 16-week semester averages to about $13. Typically, students do not feel they eat $13 worth of food at each meal.

In terms of food quality, students often feel the food in the dining halls is not worth the amount of money they pay. To help ease the worries of students, the university should look into expanding food options, especially for vegans and vegetarians. Alternatively, with the rise in housing and meal plan rate, the university can increase the amount of money students receive on their SUperFood account.

The housing options at SU could use some improvement as well. If students are expected to pay more money to live in university housing, some areas need to be addressed. Other residence halls should receive bathroom renovations and updates like those that happened in Flint, Ernie Davis and Lawrinson halls. The money could also go toward hiring more staff to maintain bathroom cleanliness, improving the common areas and regulating the heat in the residence halls.

While some students can opt out of both housing and meal plans at SU, not everyone can. Non-commuter freshmen and sophomores must live in university housing and freshmen must purchase at least a 14-meal plan. Because these costs are unavoidable for some, paying more must be worthwhile for students.