Managing Director of Operations Kelly Strossner said the prices at the Elgin Community College cafeteria have gone up to cover expenses like labor, cost of goods and perishables.

“The prices have gone up, not probable they will go down, will probably increase,” said Strossner.

ECC does have a lot of specials on meals; there are meals less than $6.00, such as the soups and three inch meat subs. There are also weight-controlled meals that let you control how much you personally want to spend.

However, not everyone thought the price increase was  beneficial.

Tom Spraner, 19, spends his first semester at ECC.

“It’s not fair the prices have gone up because a lot of people are tight on money, and can’t afford this every day,” said Spraner.

The price increase has affected him by not being able to buy lunch every day, thus resulting in Spraner bringing his own lunch and snacks to campus.

“Students need to start talking about it in order for prices to go down. If prices don’t go down, students might think twice about even coming to ECC,” said Spraner.

Diego Gonzalez, 20, a third-year student at ECC, is involved with student government and thought the prices were unfair. He is working with student government to make a recommendation to board of trustees and to Dr. Sam, where they will send out a survey asking students a few questions.

ECC’s student government holds a meeting every week, where they discuss topics such as the increase in school cafeteria prices.

“It’s necessary for prices to go down because they are expensive,” said Gonzalez.

Student government will be sending the surveys after the 2^nd Monday of Oct., hoping to get students’ results quickly.

A sample of questions included on the survey are as followed:

How many hours do students spend at school?

How many meals does the student have by day? Are you a full-time or part-time student?

“We need the students feedback and for myself because I’m representing the students,” said Gonzalez.