This report was updated Feb. 5 at 9:18 p.m.
The standard Notre Dame meal plan is getting a facelift.
After more than 20 years of using a week-based meal plan, Campus Dining is unveiling a semester-based block meal plan to begin in the fall of 2020. The number of swipes will be allocated at the beginning of the semester for its entirety.
Extra meals will not roll over from the first semester to the next, but beginning next fall, Flex Points will roll over to the next semester.
The new default plan will consist of 250 swipes per semester and $500 in Flex Points. This year’s default “Gold Plan” amounted to 238 swipes over the course of the semester.
For upperclassmen, more meal plans will be available. Students can opt to have fewer swipes or varying amounts of Flex Points each semester. Upgrade plans cost more, while plans with fewer swipes will award students a credit back towards tuition.
The two plans with the fewest number of meal swipes, and the largest tuition credits, are reserved for seniors. The Block 180 plan offers 180 swipes and $1,000 in Flex Points for a $228 credit each semester. The Block 150 plan, for 150 swipes and no Flex Points, comes with a $1,540 credit per semester.
The new plans are only available for on-campus students. The options for off-campus students will not change.
“We will do this for the first year so we can see how it works,” Chris Abayasinghe, director of Campus Dining, said. “Then there’s the opportunity to tweak it based on what our learnings are because I’m definitely open to that.”
When asked the total price of the plans during a listening session Tuesday, Abayasinghe did not specify a total price but did say the per-meal price.
The cost per meal is $10.40, which would bring the total cost of the default Block 250 plan to approximately $2,600. Notre Dame does not separate the costs of room and board on its website, so whether the price of the meal plan is increasing could not be confirmed.
Abayasinghe did not respond to a request for clarification.
Editor-in-Chief Kelli Smith, Managing Editor Natalie Weber and Sports Editor Connor Mulvena contributed to this report.
