New meal plan options on both sides of Broadway

New year, new meal plan policies.

If you don’t know a meal from a Dining Dollar from a Flex point, don’t look to last year for guidance—both the Columbia and Barnard meal plans have changed it up this semester.

Columbia first-years have options this year: They can buy 19 meals per week with 75 Dining Dollars per term, plus an additional 15 “floating” meals for any time and six “faculty meals,” or dinner with a professor on the house. In the second option, a first-year could have 15 meals per week and 125 Dining Dollars per term, with 10 floating meals and six faculty meals.

Upperclassmen, General Studies students, and graduate students will have four plans to choose from, ranging from 14 meals per week to 175 meals per term. They also have the option of guest meals.

Meals or Dining Dollars are now required at John Jay’s late-night favorite JJ’s Place and at Ferris Booth in Lerner, both of which had previously accepted Flex points. This is a change from previous years’ policies, which stated that meals could only be used at John Jay Dining Hall and Barnard’s Hewitt Dining Hall.

Dining Dollars are still versatile and can be used at all dining locations on both the Columbia and Barnard campuses, such as the Blue Java Coffee Bar in Butler and Cafe 212 in Lerner.

For the first time this year, all Barnard students are required to get a meal plan—so don’t expect to bid it farewell come spring. Previously, with the exception of students living in Hewitt Hall, all upperclassmen had the choice of buying an unlimited meal plan, a limited plan, or opting out altogether. However, all students are now required to be on at least a limited meal plan.

Despite the new meal plan mandate, the new policy offers students more flexibility in terms of plan options. There’s no getting off your first-year unlimited plan, but upperclassmen living in Barnard Quad housing can choose a different plan with fewer meals and at a lower cost. All other students can choose from three options for $300 per semester. Kosher options will be available in all plans, but at a relatively higher cost.