If you’ve taken a stroll through any one of Ithaca College’s dining halls lately, you’ve probably seen a sign posted somewhere, stating that the college was awarded an “A+ Vegan Report Card” by Peta2 in October of 2016. At the end of the Spring 2016 semester, SGC passed the “Sodexo Healthy Food Initiative” bill, which was meant to improve the lacking vegan and vegetarian options on campus and promote healthier options overall.

But has the dining hall really improved that much since the end of the Spring 2016 semester? When consulting Peta2’s website, you can find a directory of just about every college in the country, and what their “Vegan Report Card” score is. The rating is based on a checklist of qualifications that each college can participate in, and how many accommodations they have determines their rating. The checklist is as follows:

• Offers at least one vegan entrée at every meal
• Offers nondairy milk
• Labels vegan entrées
• Labels vegan desserts
• Includes a vegan member on its student advisory board
• Promotes vegan options
• Partners with students to distribute vegan food
• Offers an all-vegan station
• Participates in Meatless Mondays
• Has an all-vegan dining facility

Ithaca College meets 8 of the 10 qualifications.

Since I, personally, am not a vegan, I decided the best way to find out if the vegans at Ithaca College were really satisfied was to sit down some of them and ask.

Spoiler alert: they don’t all agree with it.

The overall consensus from those that I talked to was that while Ithaca College has more options than some other colleges, but it’s not always the easiest to find a filling meal.

“My meal today was literally french fries,” says freshman Writing major Makai Andrews. Before coming to Ithaca, she attended a boarding school, where she said that she was provided with less options. “I went to a boarding school and their vegan options were a lot worse so I guess if you weigh it that way, Ithaca isn’t doing that bad, but if you weigh it against the real world, it isn’t that hard to make vegan food.”

“There have been times when the only thing labeled vegan is like green beans in the entire dining hall,” says sophomore Occupational Therapy major Abby Chirokas. “I find I eat a lot of salads, which I really get sick of.”

“It’s hard to be a vegan and get variety,” says sophomore Documentary Studies major Rachel Kreidberg, whose main complaint was that the Late Night options are limited for those who don’t have a lot of flexibility in their schedule. “I can get more options at CollegeTown Bagels, or the market.”

Another concern is the labeling of different meals and desserts. Most of the students I talked to said that they hadn’t seen a vegan dessert ever offered in the dining hall; I personally have only found one vegan ice cream option in Towers Dining Hall. Some of the students I talked to also have found that sometimes the vegan food is labeled incorrectly.

“I once ate something that they said was vegan and actually had butter on it,” says sophomore Writing major Alex Durham. “and I went to the chef and [ask] and he was like ‘Oh shit, yeah.’” It’s a concern for many, and leads to hesitation when choosing meals. “I feel like I always have to check the listing to see if it contains milk or eggs or something underneath and I’m still hesitant to eat things that are labeled vegan.”

Junior Speech Language Pathology major Jasmine Cora says she’s satisfied with the options, and that Ithaca College has more possibilities for vegans than some of the other schools she’s visited. “I feel like just being vegan in general is kind of difficult, unless you’re making your own food, no matter where you go you’re going to have some difficulty” she says. “I don’t know if I would say that it’s an A+ vegan option but I think it’s decent.”

“It definitely makes me feel accommodated for,” says Alana Herlands about Ithaca College’s rating. “it makes me feel my values are important. But I do think that this A+ rating makes it seem there’s no room for improvement when there absolutely is.” Herlands currently lives in an on-campus apartment, but said that she opted out of her meal plan because of the restricted options she had.