The Brandeis Real Food Coalition is still working to make the campus use exclusively cage-free eggs in all areas of campus food preparation and serving. There is currently a poll on the Student Union's website asking students if they would support this switch if it resulted in a $20 increase in the price of a meal plan.In an interview withw the Justice, Student Union President Daniel Acheampong '11 said that the $20 increase stated in the poll's question would be per year, not per semester. The poll does not currently specify this-it reads "Would you support dining switching to serving exclusively cage-free eggs if it entailed a $20 increase in cost of meal plan?" Acheampong also said that the $20 "is an estimate, . but it is the number we are currently working with."

Seth Grande '12, the leader of the Cage Free Campus Initiative, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that according to his meeting with Head of Dining Services Aaron Bennos "The increase for the meal plan will be in the range of $8 per semester if it goes through. I believe the number was 8.50 or 8.75, which is consistent with what we have seen at other schools."

At press time, the current Student Union poll had 192 votes. The results, which can be seen on the Student Union's website, were that 68 percent of voters said they would still support the switch if it entailed a $20 increase in meal plans, while 32 percent of voters said they would not.

Acheampong said that he "was hoping a lot of students would come out for this poll," because the first poll had a very large turnout.

According to an Oct. 17 interview with the Justice, Acheampong said that the first poll received 877 total votes.

He said that the small amount of participants "makes it difficult to see what the entire student body wants."

Acheampong said that in order to increase the amount of participants, he will send out a link to this poll in an e-mail to the student body.

He said, "We don't want to make this exclusive change without having the real student input. In the first couple of polls, an overwhelming number [of participants] said yes, but they didn't know the exact amount [meal plans would increase by] then. We don't know if students are undecided [about the change in price], . but it's still an issue that needs to be decided."

Acheampong said he will be having a meeting with Bennos and Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins sometime early this week and that Grande will be attending that meeting with him.

Acheampong said that Bennos and Collins have stated in previous meetings that "they want to see that there is student support for this switch."

"Dining services wanted to see if there was support for this," Grande said. "I'm feeling hopeful about that.