The seven, 12 and 15 meal plans will be removed along with sophomores being required to live on campus starting next year, according to Executive Director of Housing and Dining Services Mark Hudson.
Alongside this, Hudson said bonus swipes will be removed from all meal plans. The 10 meal plan will not be available for freshmen.
Currently there are five meal plans including seven meals a week, 10, 12, 15 and an unlimited amount. Beginning next year, there will be a total of three meal plans, with only two being offered to freshmen.
Freshmen and first-year students will have the option between having the new all-access meal plan or the 14-meal dining plan.
The all-access meal plan allows students to have an unlimited amount of meal swipes in a week.
What separates it from the current unlimited plan is that students will now be able to swipe their Panther cards every 30 minutes. Previously, those with meal plans had to wait two hours in between swipes.
Including the previous two meal plans, transfer and returning students have a third option of a 10-meal plan. All meal plans include $200 dining dollars.
Next year’s room and board prices are not yet set, but Hudson said he does not expect prices to increase more than 5%.
These changes come as a way to battle food insecurity, according to Hudson.
While there are places like the food pantry on campus for those food insecure, Hudson said students are still facing food insecurity.
“The impetus for it all is to help students make better choices when they first move away from home, and to make sure they get enough food access,” Hudson said.
This change in the meal plans has been in the works for a while, he said. The idea was proposed early last spring and was approved at the end of the semester.
“We’ve been doing open houses with this new configuration, and we explained it to people,” Hudson said.
He said he thinks having the new meal plan will allow students to take better advantage of their meal plans.
According to Hudson, Free Application for Federal Student Aid has required universities to change their cost of attendance number, which is the number financial aid is based on, to whatever it would cost to have 21 meals per week.
Starting the fall semester, off-campus students will have the option to purchase from a block plan or dining-dollar plan.
There are two block plans which are either 50 or 100 meals per semester. Each plan includes $150 dining dollars.
Unused meals on block plans will not roll over into the following semester, but dining dollar plans will roll over if students purchase another meal plan in the spring.
Off-campus students also have the option to choose from the all-access, 14 or 10 meal plans.
Beginning next year, sophomores will be required to live on campus unless they commute. This comes to combat the retention rate, Hudson said.
Living on campus is less stressful as opposed to living off campus, said Hudson.
Additionally, only credits obtained after a student’s high school graduation are considered for sophomore status in the case of housing.
Dual credits obtained while in high school will not be accounted for in this specific regard, and the focus is put on the credits earned post-graduation.
“The idea is what you are doing in a college class after high school,” Hudson said. “Dual credits are certainly challenging, and you work hard to get them, but you’re still in the high school environment.”
Depending on how many credits they come to Eastern with, transfer students will also be required to live on campus. Hudson said that going to the community college to earn credit places more duties on students rather than earning dual credits in a high school classroom.
Students over the age of 20 are not required to live on campus, regardless of how many credits they have.
Additionally, students who join a fraternity or sorority can still choose to live in Greek Court/affinity housing.
Cam’ron Hardy can be reached at 581-2812 or at cahardy@eiu.edu.
