It was a big day for Shaw Dining Hall. Students piled their trays with spaghetti, meatballs and chicken parmesan, and they smiled as they named Tuesday’s lunch the best in weeks. But for the off days, there’s a new meal plan in the works. This one is independent from the university, and it will swipe at a long list of off-campus restaurants.’It’d be a lot better than this food,’ said Danerys Gutierrez, a freshman finance and accounting major, even as she finished her above-average dining hall meal.This August, at least 12 local restaurants will introduce the Off-Campus Meal Plan, a service that works like a hybrid of the university’s SUpercard and meal plan systems. Students can swipe their meals away at Marshall Street locations like Quiznos and Jimmy John’s, as well as several restaurants downtown.The plan attaches a dollar value to each meal – $6 at minimum – and encourages restaurants to set up special price breaks for cardholders. David Diana, the plan’s owner and creator, graduated University of Massachusetts-Amherst and started the business there in 1995. He says it benefits both the students and the local businesses.’We like the whole karma thing,’ said Diana. ‘Everybody’s happy.’Since Diana targets primarily off-campus students, the new program won’t be in fierce, direct competition with the university’s plans, which all students in residence halls are required to purchase.But meals on the OCMP cost between $6 and $7 each, about half the price of those on the university’s 10-meal plan. The catch is that the OCMP meals aren’t dining hall buffets – they act more like a SUpercard, which students swipe in small intervals. Each restaurant decides how much a ‘meal’ is worth, and Diana says it is designed to work in the cardholder’s favor.The system will be ready for the 2005-2006 school year, Diana said, and he expects to boost marketing in May. Right now, the only evidence of the OCMP is a small display at several local eateries – those stands will remain empty until the company decides pricing, recruits more restaurants and prints the brochures.Some M-Street restaurants see this as an opportunity to increase business and give students an easier way to eat there – that’s probably why much of the Crouse-Marshall area is already signed on.Christy Lee, manager of Quiznos, said she hopes the OCMP will alleviate some of the complaints she’s heard about the price of her sandwiches. If students don’t have to fork over cash to eat there, she expects they’ll like it better and visit more.And the downtown restaurants, which are waiting with bated breath for the School of Architecture’s move to Armory Square, have hopped on the OCMP wagon to further appeal to the influx of Syracuse University students. Tim Yorton, owner of the Blue Tusk, a Walton Street restaurant that has joined the program, said he already serves a lot of SU students and looks forward to seeing more.’Supposedly 700 students will be attending class down in Armory Square, so hopefully that’s a pretty easy draw,’ Yorton said.Sophomore Evan Olesh, who hit the dining hall for lunch with two friends yesterday, said the prices in Armory Square keep him from making the trek there for dinner. But with an Off-Campus Meal Plan, his parents would pick up the tab.’If it seems free, then it’s not that bad,’ said Olesh, a marketing and finance major.’I think it’s a smart move. I think it’s a simple move,’ said John Hutchinson, owner of Jimmy John’s, an M-Street sandwich shop just around the corner from Quiznos. ‘I’m surprised the university has never opened itself to accepting Marshall Street into its meal plan.’SU has tinkered with the idea of moving the SUpercard off campus, but Assistant Director of Food Services Mark Tewksbury says the proposal always runs into tax trouble. At Amherst, the OCMP forced the university to improve its services to match the new competitor – it’s yet to be seen how SU’s Food Services will react.Tewksbury, who oversees the operational side of Food Services, said the university offers just about everything students need on campus, and he’s eager to fill requests for new and different food.’I don’t really see the need, unless you’re down on Marshall Street and it’s more convenient to charge it to your parents,’ he said of the OCMP. ‘Why would a student not opt to just get a Visa card?’Diana said the plan appeals to parents because it’s a closed system – students can only use it to buy food, and they can’t spend meals on alcohol. With a credit card, it’s impossible to limit where the money goes.’Regardless of what else happens,’ he said, ‘their sons and daughters will always have something good to eat.’Diana hatched the idea for OCMP in his days as a business major at Amherst in the mid-’90s. It began as a class project, and after graduation he made the business a reality. Today the plan is available at nine schools, including Rutgers University and the University of Delaware, and Diana says he plans to expand to dozens more schools in coming years.Twenty restaurants participate at Rutgers, where the OCMP started at the beginning of this academic year. Manny Soror, the manager of Skinny Vinny’s, which sells the region’s ‘fat sandwiches,’ says OCMP sales were slow in its first months. But since students returned from Winter Break in January, he said, the number of cards he’s swiped has skyrocketed.Skinny Vinny’s gives cardholders a price break of between $1.50 and $2 on a sandwich-and-soda combo, Soror said. Otherwise, a meal there is worth $6.At Amherst, where OCMP has become a campus staple, more than 60 restaurants accept the card. The Loose Goose Caf has participated for three-and-a-half years, and its owner, Larry Severence, says it’s been a positive experience for students and restaurants alike.’If I didn’t accept OCMP, I wouldn’t get their business,’ he said of cardholding Amherst students.Syracuse restaurant owners and the students they serve seem to see the same potential in the Off-Campus Meal Plan. If it catches on, it will give students more cash-free dining options, and it could help push business off campus to Marshall Street and downtown.’Whatever makes it easier for students to just get food so they can get on with their day, that’s where I see the value,’ Hutchinson said. ‘We’ll see if I’m proven right or wrong.’

THE LINEUP

So far, these 12 restaurants have agreed to accept the Off-Campus Meal Plan. Deals with 10 more are in the works. For more info, visit OCMP.com.

n Ambrosian Baja Burriton Chuck’s Cafn El Sahan Jimmy John’sn King David’s Restaurantn Quiznos Subn Samraat Indian Restaurantn Stella’s Dinern The Blue Tuskn The Mission n ZJ’s

Source: David Diana, owner of OCMP