NICOLE ALBERTSON and
SEAN CARROLL
News Assistant and Staff Writer
Waves cafeteria raised the price of student food by 3.6 percent this year. Last year, grumbling stomachs noticed a wider selection of choices in the Caf, HAWC and Café Fresca in the CCB. But this year’s unexpected price raise has some students worried about maintaining enough points to last the entire school year.
“I would say that $4 for my daily Odwalla juice drink is a tad much,” freshman Matt Coccoluto said. “I’ll just have to live with it and hope that I have enough points by semester’s end.”
The boost is a result of an increase in the nation’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to Pepperdine Dining Services. The CPI measures the average price changes in the consumer market of goods and services. CPI is a part of the U.S. Department of Labor and complies their data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It aims to compute the amount of money that people earn and the amount of money that they are charged.
The index covers the costs of food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, recreation, education and communication, and other goods like tobacco, and personal services.
In March 2007 students experienced a mistaken price increase at the Cafe because of staff oversight. The mistake was quickly corrected and prices were lowered to their original value after students complained to dinning services. The previous price increase was caused because Pepperdine’s food distributor, Sodexho, transition to a new program called “Smart Market.”
But the new permanent price increase is not a mistake. For permanent changes, a committee gathers to review cafeteria prices that will intentionally increase. The deciding committee is comprised of the Dining Staff and university faculty, including Director of Housing Jim Brock.
In March 2007 Brock said the two groups get together and go through the menu on an item-by-item basis and make decisions on which product prices to increase, based on market trends.
“Some years there are no increases, and other times there are many,” Brock said. “It just depends on what costs the company [Sodexho] is facing.”
According to the July 2007 index, food and beverages rose 0.3 percent since June. There were sharp increases for dairy products but it was nearly offset by declines for fruits and vegetables, for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs, and for nonalcoholic beverages. So far there has been a 4.1 percent increase from the last un-adjusted 12-month measure in July 2006.
While students may notice their points diminish much faster than in previous years, Pepperdine is not the only school effected by the increasing rates, according to Dining Services.
Though this year’s price increase is small at a glace or sparing ID card swipe, the 3.6 percent increase will add up and force students to watch their points closely as the semester ends.
09-06-2007