About 40 students, faculty and staff showed up for Monday night's town hall meeting in John and Lucy Cook Hall. A panel of Saint Louis University staff members fielded questions posed by students about everything from tuition increases to Taco Bell.

The panel consisted of Terisa Remelius, Ph.D., director of operations and judicial affairs, Argyle Wade, director of housing and residence life, Cari Wickliffe, director of student financial services, Officer Gary Gray and Fred Wencel of University Dining Services.

Most of the questions revolved around the meal plan, Chartwells and the new dining options coming to campus in the fall.

"With putting commuter students on the meal plan, it puts more value in the resident meal plans," Wencel said.

"One of the things that we have been hearing from our students from surveys and from various conversations is that they want more choices on campus, and that they want more flex dollars," Remelius said. "One of the ways we're going to make that happen is by putting our commuter students on the meal plan.

"Fred [Wencel] and his team have talked to several different franchises about coming to our campus, so we're investigating those," Remelius said.

Among the franchises they are looking into is Taco Bell.

Remelius also said that the administration is meeting the students' demands for more flex points. The two percent board increases for next semester will add $35 in flex.

"The other issue is that we have created a program this year, very much because Father Biondi believes that the money you are spending on a plan should bring the value to you," Remelius said.

For example, when board rates go up by 2 percent next year, the flex points on any given meal plan will increase by $35 per semester.

"As far as the brands, we have 10 or 12 different companies come to campus. We're looking at a bunch of different options," Wencel said. "Somewhere in this process we want to get some customer involvement."

To get student involvement in the decision, dining services plan to set up a taste testing of a few of the brands being investigated to get student feedback and find out which brands students deem most popular.

The taste-testing survey will take place around March 22 or 23, in either the BSC or in the quad, depending on the weather.

On the cafeteria side, Wencel said that his staff plans on cooking more items to order next fall, as well as providing more of what the students want so that the Chartwells eateries can compete with Au Bon Pain and Wackadoo's.

Argyle Wade told students that he plans on getting renovations in the works this summer for Fusz Hall, Marguerite Hall and DeMattias Hall to try to keep sophomores on campus, as part of the second year experience.

Wade wants to get workout rooms, computer labs, 24-hour study lounges and a kitchenette on each floor.

"We want to really try and upgrade those places and not make them feel like…another freshman dorm," Wade said. "We want to get people excited about living on campus as a sophomore."

A student expressed concern as to whether there will be enough apartment housing available after part of Grand Forest is demolished to make room for the arena, and if the University is planning on building more apartments to compensate for the loss.

"I'm a couple hundred beds empty. Even taking Grand Forest out of the system, I still have empty beds," Wade said. "I'm not going to get a new Village being a couple hundred beds empty."

Gray reported that crime is down by 15 percent from last year.

"Actually, we kind of brag on you guys, saying this is a pretty good group this year, besides a few little incidents this year," Gray said.

Wickliffe was asked about upperclassman scholarships. He said that there is an upperclassman scholarship that has been in place for three years-it just hasn't been highly publicized.

"We can, this year at least, expect to have about a half a million dollars in upperclass scholarships," Wickliffe said.