An artist's rendering of the new Danforth. Courtesy of UR Dining.
Goodbye Hillside, hello P.O.D. Market. Goodbye clubs, hello unlimited plan.
Dining Services will be reorganizing the layout of its dining halls, hours and meal plans in the immediate future. According to Director of Campus Dining Services and Auxiliary Operations Cam Schauf’s presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 23, the plans will further the changes Dining Services has worked on over the past few years.
Dining Services will eliminate clubs from meal plans, replacing them with an “unlimited” plan. Students who have the new plan will be allowed to enter and exit from Douglass and Danforth dining centers as frequently as they want. Those with declining-only plans will still be allowed to pay declining to eat at these dining halls. In order to prevent students without unlimited plans from swiping in with the cards of those who do, dining services workers will begin checking photo ID.
The fact that meal plan options are based on which residence hall students live in will not change. If students live in a building that required the purchase of a club meal plan, they will have to buy one of several choices of unlimited plans. Depending on the residential group a student lives in, the student will be able to choose between an unlimited plan with a small declining balance or an all-declining meal plan.
Hours of operation, though not yet finalized, will also change. The largest change will occur at Hillside Café, which is set to become a P.O.D. (Provisions on Demand) market that will be open 24 hours a day during the week and will replace the Corner Store.
Danforth Dining Center is also scheduled for a large scale renovation. According to Schauf, it will have a Mongolian grill, a produce market, a pizza oven and deli and cereal stations. Danforth, as well as Douglass, will be all you care to eat, while the Commons will be declining only.
Some students are hesitant about this decision, citing concerns about dropping clubs from meal plans.
“Declining goes really quickly,” freshman Blanca Abney said.
However, some were supportive of the all-declining plan.
“Clubs shouldn’t exist,” Take Five Scholar Claire Malekian said. “I think [the unlimited dining plan] would be most ideal for getting your money’s worth.”
Others aren’t quite convinced.
“I’m not sure if the quality will suffer if you make [Douglass] an all-you-can-eat… [It’s] my favorite place to eat,” senior Jenny Viera said.
Still other students expressed some dissatisfaction with how meal plans are tied to residential groups.
“The meal plan is already a waste of money. It’s based on proximity to campus and not what you actually need,” Viera said.
Otis is a member of
the class of 2011.
