With a brand new cafe and an increase in the price for meal swipes at dining halls, USC students react to the changes to on-campus dining.
The Moreton Fig restaurant reopened on September 3 with a new name, menu, and store hours. The former upscale restaurant is now Morton Fig Cafe, and they offers coffee, tea, and various pastries and sandwiches in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center.
Moreton Fig was founded in 2010 as a collaboration between USC Hospitality and Lark Creek Restaurant Group. For nearly 14 years, it offered a full bar and a formal dining experience geared toward USC faculty.
The more casual and study-oriented dining experience offered by the cafe seems to appeal to many students on campus, including Emelie Sarmiento, a freshman studying mechanical engineering.
“I enjoy the coffee and I enjoy the atmosphere. It’s a nice place to chill and study,” Sarmiento said.
David Nguyen, a freshman studying business administration, also said he appreciates the cafe’s quieter study atmosphere.
“I think the study environment’s good. The upscale environment is also pretty nice to study in, and it’s really quiet,” Nguyen said. “I don’t know how it’s gonna be in a couple weeks, but hopefully no one knows about this place.”
While Moreton Fig’s rebranding to a more affordable, casual cafe has improved dining ease and accessibility for students, the campus dining halls have done the opposite.
Parkside Dining Hall, Everybody’s Kitchen (EVK), and McCarthy Dining Hall have increased their student lunch and dinner prices to $17.39 and $17.59 respectively. This is a $2 increase from $15.39 and $15.59 in the 2023-2024 school year.
Pablo Uribe, a sophomore studying business administration, said the price increase may deter students from eating at the dining halls. He also said that one of his closest friends recently stopped eating at the USC dining halls to save money and spent it elsewhere.
“It’s pretty expensive to eat outside USC,” Uribe said. “Now that USC raised their prices, I think it’s going to be the same, so that will cause more people to go to other places that have more variety and better stuff.”
The change in price of single meal swipes is also reflected in the increased cost of meal plans for the 2024-2025 school year. Last year, the Cardinal meal plan required for freshmen with a USC housing contract cost $3,645 per semester. This year, that price has spiked to $3,830, a $185 increase. The other meal plan options available to students have also increased similarly in price.
Aidan Dougherty, a masters student studying computer science, says USC should be more transparent in their reasons for the price change.
“If there was a good reason, like the workers were being underpaid and they needed this price increase to up their pay, it would make sense to me,” said Dougherty. “But if they’re not doing that, what’s the reason they’re increasing the prices?”
Dirk de Jong, asst. vice president of USC Hospitality and the USC Hotel, responded to Annenberg Media’s request for a comment.
“We can confirm that the cost of food, labor, and utilities have risen dramatically since COVID, as all of us have experienced at the grocery store and our favorite off-campus restaurants. USC Hospitality has taken every measure to keep food costs as low as possible without compromising quality,” , he said in an email.
NOTE: This story has been updated to include a statement from USC hospitality.