Dining Services has adjusted its meal plans for the 2025-26 school year to help students better budget their money while dining at on-campus locations.
Previous meal plans consisted of a block plan with a designated number of meal swipes that would reset at the end of the semester. Whitney Villarreal, senior director of marketing and guest experience for Chartwells, said the team developed the main plan based on a survey sent to students, faculty and staff every October regarding dining services.
They discovered students had difficulty budgeting their meal plans for the entire semester. For example, a student would wonder how to make 120 meal swipes last about 115 days or how to use all 200 of them.
“With the new plans that were put into place this fall, it’s clear how many meal swipes or meals [students] have per week to use in the dining halls, and their meal plans reset every Saturday at 2 a.m.,” Villarreal said.
Meal swipes can be used at buffet-style locations like the Commons and Harris dining halls, while retail meal swipes are for use at various locations like Jones Dining Center and Paws N Go Market. A retail meal swipe covers up to $8.69, while the remaining service can be covered with Dining Dollars, a credit or debit card or Bobcat Buck$. Retail meal swipes cannot be used at certain locations such as Starbucks, TeaCo and food trucks, as they are subcontractors or have their point of sale system.
On-campus students could choose their meal plan from three options: Maroon 7, Gold 14 and Bobcat Unlimited. Maroon 7 has seven swipes per week, one retail swipe, two guest passes and $400 in Dining Dollars, totaling $1,625 for the semester. Gold 14 has 14 swipes per week, three retail swipes, five guest passes and $300 in Dining Dollars, totaling $1,955 for the semester. Bobcat Unlimited has one swipe per day, one retail swipe, 10 guest passes and $300 in Dining Dollars, totaling $2,350 for the semester.
While the survey was open, the MyMeals Assistant let students get a better handle on their eating habits, budget and class schedule before choosing a meal plan. On-campus students are required to get a meal plan and would be automatically assigned the Gold 14 plan if they did not choose by July 21. They could change it for this semester until Sept. 10, and no changes are available to make after this date, but Villarreal said students can use this time to determine what plan better suits them for the next semester.
“Say the student gets the Gold 14 meal plan, and then the next semester they know that that might have been too much for them, then they can go down to the Maroon 7,” Villarreal said. “Knowing how much they’re going to eat within a week and how many times they want to visit the dining hall will determine which meal plan would be best for them.”
Off-campus students can customize a residential meal plan, deciding how many meal swipes and Dining Dollars they can purchase to fit their needs. These are optional and cannot be added or changed after Sept. 10, but they can email a request to [email protected] to cancel their plan or can purchase a commuter meal plan through Dining Services after that date.
“[Off-campus students] have had a whole year of the meal plan under their belt, they’re going in the next year, they know like, ‘Hey, I like to eat more in the dining halls,’ or maybe ‘I like to eat more retail,’ so they can choose if they want more meal swipes or if they want more Dining Dollars, or they can choose if they only want swipes or only want Dining Dollars,” Villarreal said.
Since the meal plan swipes reset several times throughout the semester, there are no more rollovers to the next semester, but Villarreal said students can still donate unused meal swipes to Swipe Out Hunger during the last week.
