KATIE FREEMAN | STAFF REPORTER | kmfreema@butler.edu
Butler University students will have new meal plan options with dining provider Bon Appetit for the upcoming 2019-20 school year.
Starting this fall, students living in residence halls — Irvington House, Ross Hall, ResCo or Fairview House — will have the following options. Both cost $3,625 per semester.
- 250 block meal plan with 600 flex dollars
- 300 block meal plan with 400 flex dollars
Currently, the three offered meal plans are:
- All access with unlimited meals/week and 400 flex dollars for $3,515 per semester
- 65 block meal plan with 450 flex dollars for $1,050 per semester
- 40 block meal plan with 315 flex dollars for $690 per semester
The new meal plan options for students living in residence halls cost $110 more per semester than the all access residence hall meal plan offered currently.
Next year, there will be three voluntary meal plan options available for students not living in a residence hall.
- 115 block meal plan with 600 flex dollars for $2,150 per semester
- 50 block meal plan with 300 flex dollars for $985 per semester
- 25 block meal plan with 250 flex dollars for $610 per semester
Kathy Shellogg, executive director of student living and learning, said the new dining options will give students more flexibility to utilize the majority of their block plans.
“The fact that we will have more locations really gives students a choice,” Shellogg said.
A new meal exchange system will allow students more flexibility with how they use their swipes. Atherton Union will continue to serve as the main dining facility on campus while all other locations excluding Scotty’s Dawghouse will be considered retail locations. Students will be able to use any amount of their swipes at Atherton and a portion of them at any retail location.
Students with a residential dining plan will have the ability to use 40 of their meal plan swipes as an alternative to flex Dollars at retail locations such as ResCo, Plum Market, the HRC or the Lacy School of Business. Flex dollars and Dawg Bucks will also be accepted at those locations.
The 115 block meal plan will include 60 retail swipes, the 50 block plan will include 40 retail swipes and the 25 block plan will include 20 retail swipes.
Shellog said the amount of food that one will be able to purchase with one block swipe at a retail location has yet to be determined.
The changes to the meal plans came from a yearlong dining study commissioned by vice president of student affairs Frank Ross with Envision Consulting. The study included surveys, focus groups, and a heat map of Butler’s campus that showed where students are on campus at different times of the day.
Kelly Stone, a first-year marketing and entrepreneurship major, will have a residential meal plan next year.
“I think in terms of dining and meal plans, change is good,” Stone said. “I know that food is a concern here for students, so having a variety is going to overall help the situation.”
Courtney Fella, a first-year pharmacy and Spanish major, will be living in Fairview next year with a residential meal plan.
“I like the different options that will be available,” Fella said. “There isn’t as much right now, and I have to provide my own food sometimes.”
Students who choose not to purchase a meal plan will still have the ability to purchase Dawg Bucks.
