Why do dorms with kitchens require meal plans?

I love everything about the Utah State University Eastern campus. I have been here long enough to know that this school is providing a good education for our future. However, we have some systems require a little modification. Although this is my last semester at Eastern, it was my first time living on campus housing, so I never had to deal with those issues before when I lived off campus before this semester. 

We all love food and good food makes our day better. However, I am the person that has so many diet restrictions due to my  allergic reactions. I  have to be aware of everything  I eat and for that reason, I barely eat out unless, I know the ingredients on the menus.

When I decided to live on campus this semester, I chose the dorm that had kitchen so I could prepare my food safely.   It is required for all students. I  paid for the meal plan, but  wasn’t able to use any of the swipes since I’m lactose intolerant which means I can’t eat any cheese or dairy products.

Not only that, I’m allergic to several spices as well. I thought Eastern’s meal plan ran the same was any other school does, where the school usually charges a swipe for each meal. Apparently, three meals a week would be gone, if we do not use them. I think this is frustrating, because we have kitchens in our dorms for a reason. Since we are the ones who paid for this plan, we should have the option to choose when we want to eat and how often we would like to use the  meal plan.

The school should not force the students to eat at the cafeteria when they can cook for themselves at their dorm. I am aware of those who live in the dorms where kitchens are not available. In those cases, it makes sense to enforce this meal plan, but for students with kitchens, it does not make sense to pay for food twice, since we already went grocery shopping every week.

After  conversations with many students on campus, I believe meal plans should be optional for who students who live in dorms with kitchens. We should have a freedom to decide whether we want to use or not and the remaining balance should be return since we are the ones who paid for it. College tuition is already high and I believe that every change in favor of students could help us in many ways.