Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

Following viral claims from a Stanford University student that her peers were falsely claiming to follow Jainism in order to escape the mandatory meal plan, the college has responded by expanding its dining hall accommodations — including the rollout of Jain-friendly options.According to the Stanford Daily, the college began supplying food in compliance with the ancient religion’s lacto-vegetarian restrictions in January, a move that brought students who had obtained Jainism-based religious accommodations back onto the meal plan.The new offerings follow an eye-opening piece published in The Times by a current student, Elsa Johnson, on the prevalence of disability accommodations at the Silicon Valley school. Ms. Johnson wrote about the advantages available to students who could document some form of disability, including single rooms, extended test time, academic exemptions, and other perks.With an estimated 38 percent of her undergraduate peers registered as disabled, Ms. Johnson concluded that “the system is there to be gamed, and most students feel that if you’re not gaming it, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.”Among the more striking details in the piece was how some gamed their dining options. Ms. Johnson claimed that several of her peers were falsely presenting themselves as followers of the Jain faith — which prohibits consumption of any food that causes harm to living creatures, including root vegetables — in order to opt out of the standard required meal plan.“The students I know who claim to be Jain (but aren’t) spend their meal money at Whole Foods instead and enjoy freshly made salads and other yummy dishes, while the rest of us are stuck with college meals, like burgers made partly from ‘mushroom mix,’” Ms. Johnson lamented. With the new dining hall offerings, however, the college has “put everyone back on the meal plan,” one Jain-pretender told the Stanford Daily. (The paper noted that the student requested anonymity out of “fear of retaliation.”) That avenue now closed off, some are already wondering what these students will try instead. “I’m kinda looking forward to seeing the students’ next move here,” quipped an academic freedom advocate, Steven McGuire.

Stanford Calls Bluff on Students Using Jain Faith To Dodge Meal Plan

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