IMRaD Report

Isaiah Jones

4/14/15

IMRaD Report

Gender and Revision of Meal Plan

Abstract

Research in gender and revision of the university meal plan found that men are more in favor of changing it than women. This study examined 13 male and 7 female students at the University of Louisville. The survey was done by sending questions over email and personal interviews. The results indicate that men agree more than women on revising the university meal plan. Although this is a small sample size, it’s acceptable to assume this study could represent the whole student population. These findings may suggest that a slightly higher percentage of men want a change to the university meal plan.

Introduction

Discussing this topic among students on campus, the majority would like to see the meal plan be revised. The current meal plan for a student living on campus is either $930 or $1460. This will cover the student’s meal swipes and flex points. Students can use their points and swipes at university restaurants such as the Ville Grille and Chic Fil A.

Students aren’t disappointed in this meal plan, they just want it to have a few small changes. There’s a couple problems with the meal plan. There are a limited number of restaurants where students can use their meal cards. Many restaurants surround the campus, but students can only use their meal plan on a small amount of them. Also unused swipes don’t rollover each semester. Most students don’t use all of the 115 swipes given to them at the beginning of each semester, and when the semester ends the university takes them. So the university basically keeps the student’s money from unused swipes and points. So by the end of the spring semester, some students still have a couple hundred dollars left, and don’t get to use that money for the next semester. This study will help determine how many students want a revision to the meal plan, and also compare and contrast male and female opinions. My findings on the study conducted will show that students agree on adding more restaurants and having meal swipes and flex points rollover, thus possibly giving the university a decision to change it in the future.

Method

Participants

13 men and 7 women participated in this study. All participants were students at the University of Louisville, and the majority of those surveyed were freshmen.

Data Sources

The researcher received all of his data from the survey questions and interviews.

Procedures

The researcher emailed the survey to students at the University of Louisville. Next the researcher interviewed two students on the same survey questions. This not only provided data, but a more in-depth view of the student’s opinions on the revision of the meal plan. Once all data was collected, he recorded them into a table.

Data Analysis

The researcher asked the students the following questions in the survey:

1.       What is your gender?

2.       What year are you?

3.       Are you satisfied with the university’s current meal plan?

4.       The university should change its meal plan?

5.       There should be more restaurants added to the meal plan.

6.       Unused swipes and flex points should be rolled over to the next semester.

Questions 1 and 2 are just for comparing and contrasting. Question 3 should be answered with yes or no. Questions 4, 5, and 6 are given the options strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree.

Results

Table 1 shows that a great majority of the students surveyed strongly agreed on revising the meal plan, adding restaurants to the meal plan, and rolling over swipes and flex points.

Table 1: All students survey answers on revision of meal plan, addition of more restaurants, and the rollover of swipes and flex points.

	Meal plan should be revised	More restaurants should be added	Unused swipes and flex points should rollover
Strongly Agree	60%	70%	70%
Agree	30%	25%	30%
Disagree	10%	5%	0%
Strongly Disagree	0%	0%	0%

Table 2 indicates that males are in strong favor of changing the meal plan, adding restaurants, and rolling over swipes and flex points. None of the males voted disagree or strongly disagree on any of the choices. To receive the percentage of males who strongly agreed or agreed on a choice, the researcher divided the total number of males surveyed (13) by the number of males who voted in that choice. For example, 77% of males strongly agreed that the meal plan should be revised. To get that percentage, divide 10 by 13, with 10 being the number who voted in that category and 13 being the total number of males.

Table 2: Male’s survey answers on revision of meal plan, addition of more restaurants, and the rollover of swipes and flex points.

	Meal plan should be revised	More restaurants should be added	Unused swipes and flex points should rollover
Strongly Agree	77%	77%	85%
Agree	23%	23%	15%
Disagree	0%	0%	0%
Strongly Disagree	0%	0%	0%

Table 3 shows some variation for the female’s choices on revising the meal plan, adding restaurants, and rolling over swipes and flex points. From looking at the table below, it shows females are in favor of changing the meal plan, just not as strongly as males. Over a quarter disagreed that the meal plan should be revised, and most agreed it should be revised. Also more agreed on the rolling over of swipes and flex points than strongly agreeing. This demonstrates females are somewhat in favor of revision of the meal plan.

Table 3: Female’s survey answers on revision of meal plan, addition of more restaurants, and the rollover of swipes and flex points.

	Meal plan should be revised	More restaurants should be added	Unused swipes and flex points should rollover
Strongly Agree	28.5%	57%	43%
Agree	43%	28.5%	57%
Disagree	28.5%	14.5%	0%
Strongly Disagree	0%	0%	0%

With these results, it’s acceptable to assume males are in stronger favor of revising the university meal plan. The survey would be more accurate if the sample size was larger and there was an even number of males and females surveyed, but these findings could suggest how the percentages would look in a larger scale.

Discussion

The researcher interviewed two freshmen students, one male and one female, on this topic. The male student wanted change to the meal plan, strongly agreed to adding more restaurants, and strongly agreed to rolling over meal swipes and flex points. He stated that the restaurants surrounding campus should be included on the meal plan. Also he said he hates eating at the same restaurants every day, so adding more would be helpful. The female student wanted a revision to the meal plan, agreed to adding restaurants, and agreed to rolling over meal swipes and flex points. She wants healthier restaurants to be added and that the students should have more options on the meal plan choice they want.

The importance of this study is to show the percentage of students who want the university meal plan to be revised, and the comparison of males and females on the survey questions. There were a couple problems that were stated earlier, but it’s still assumable that the data is still accurate for a bigger and equal sample size. In doing this study, it has been found that males are more supportive of revision of the meal plan than females. This suggest males might care about this topic more than females. Future research on this topic could be comparing the freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior students or having a larger sample size for the study.