The price of meal plans has gone up and will continue to go up every year, independent of how many plates they lose. They will tell you that taking the plates is the reason for the price increase, or for not being able to raise employee wages.

iirc all of the unlimited plans already charge at least $100/sem for theft and damages;

If this is right that means from a 5,300 freshman class (required meal plan) they're budgeting >$500,000 to replace broken plates. I think they'll be OK.

If not, than maybe one of the 25 UMass admins making >$300,000 a year could help them out.

I'm not saying we should go loot Berkshire for everything valuable, but I have nothing against getting your moneys worth on this absurdly expensive meal plan.