KU dining plans will shift from declining balance to meal swipes this fall

KU Dining will change meal plans from a declining balance, to a set number of meal swipes for the fall 2025 semester following budgeting concerns.

Ashley Updike / South Dining Commons in Downs Hall opened in August 2017 and primarily serves first-year students.

Students often struggle to spend all the money on their dining plan, even after purchasing the plan with the lowest balance. Because dining dollars currently don’t carry over to the following school year, many freshmen are left with hundreds of dollars to spend at the end of the semester.

KU Dining Director Lindsay Robinson acknowledged these issues and said they were the driving force for the change.

Robinson and her team researched other Big 12 and surrounding universities’ dining options, heard feedback from KU parents, and surveyed upperclassmen who paid for dining plans in the past.

“The main thing about the dining plans and our choice to going to swipe plans is so our students don’t have that extra money leftover at the end of the semester. It really does break my heart when I see students with two thousand dollars trying to spend it at the end of the semester, whereas the meal swipes, it’s a little easier for a student to budget, especially when it’s their first year on their own,” Robinson said.

One student has been spending her extra dining dollars on other people she may not even know, offering to buy them coffees just so her money doesn’t go to waste.

“I’m having trouble finishing my dining plan so I’m having to spend it on you know other people and buy other people coffees just because since it doesn’t roll over, I don’t get a refund,” freshman Allyson Tuck said.

The new dining plans include the 10 Meal Plan, 14 Meal Plan and Premium Meal Plan.

The 10 Meal Plan will cost $2,200 semesterly, and offers 10 meal swipes per week at KU’s dining halls. The plan will also include $1,000 per semester to go toward dining locations that are not inside a residence hall and franchise dining spaces such as Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A and Wendy’s.

The 14 Meal Plan will cost $2,382 semesterly, and offers 14 meal swipes per week at the dining halls. This plan includes $600 per semester toward the other dining spaces on campus.

The Premium Meal Plan will cost $2,450 semesterly, and offers unlimited meal swipes at the dining halls. This plan only includes $300 per semester toward the other dining spaces on campus.

KU Dining is considerate of food insecurities and wants to keep their plans affordable for all, so these new dining plans are comparable in price per semester to the previous declining balance plans.

“Now you will not be going home with you know, 500 packages of granola bars because you’re trying to spend the last you know five hundred dollars of your dining plan,” Robinson said.

KU Dining hopes the biggest takeaway for future students is the ability to eat healthy meals over the entire school year without using all of their money before the end of the year, or having tons of money leftover that they can’t get back.