Richardson Towers Cafe has recently implemented some significantchanges to prevent students from obtaining lunch on their mealcards or with TigerFunds without student identification cards.
Cafe officials said they have had problems with students tryingto pay for food with TigerFunds or a meal plan without theirstudent identification cards by giving the social security numberof another person, sometimes fictitious.
R.T. Cafe Supervisor Dorothy Shepherd said if students didn'thave their card in the past, cafeteria workers would key theirsocial security numbers into the registers. However, a rule thatstudents must have a valid University of Memphis ID card to beadmitted went into effect March 19.
Now if students don't have their ID card, R.T. Cafe workers cancheck the student's driver license and name against a list of allstudents with meal plans or TigerFunds.
Deanna Gillespie, business officer for Residence Life and DiningServices, and Shepherd said football players were a major cause ofthis problem.
Gillespie said the players would come in knowing they hadalready used the meals on their plan and would eat more than theirnumber of meals. However, Gillespie said they were able to chargethe unpaid meals to the Athletic Department.
Jason Brown, a 22-year-old senior exercise sports science major,eats occasionally in R. T. Caf� because he gets a number offree meals as a football player.
"It used to be they could just punch a number, now your name ison a list," he said.
Brown said in the past he did sometimes forget his ID card, butnow he remembers his card almost every time he comes.
Andrew Harden, a 23-year-old professional studies major, said heoften ate in R. T. Caf�, however he was taken off the mealplan when he lost his football eligibility.
"The football team is cool with one another," Harden said, sothey often shared social security numbers to eat in the Cafe. Hesaid the football players let each other use their social securitynumbers but don't just take meals or make up numbers.
"Part of the problem, I think, is the computer system that theyhave here. Whenever the system is down it affects the cashregisters," Gillespie said, adding that there is no way to know ifthey have a meal plan.
She added that when one person comes in and sees the systemdown, they go and tell their friends, and then their friends comein with just a social security number.
"Anytime the system goes down (Dining Services employees) aresubject to students trying to use other people's plans or SocialSecurity numbers to eat," said Patricia Murry, a U of M systemssupport specialist. "We have had problems with the old card and arein the process of trying to get that replaced."
Gillespie said they had three to four pages of names with about50 names per page. She said a majority of students actually had ameal plan or TigerFunds. Some students had to charge their studentaccounts so Dining Services could recoup their money.
Gillespie added they had a few individuals who were not studentscoming in to eat, yet they were able to tie them to who they camewith and get the fee paid.
"We had a lot, at least three-fourths of a page, between 30 and35, for bogus Social Security Numbers with no names for," Gillespiesaid.
Gillespie said when students come in to eat and make upinformation "we were being charged for that."
She also added that the problem is two-fold. First she said itis the people without IDs or bogus Social Security numbers.
The second issue is people avoiding responsibility for paymententirely.
"The biggest problem is people coming in saying, 'I see a friendand I want to talk to them'," Gillespie said.
She said the sign and the rule about the ID cards have cut downa lot of free meals. Gillespie added that they caught a lot ofpeople, but it was very confrontational.
Shepherd said it's "straight now. Now they're coming clean."
