Starting fall 2016, the University of Maryland will move away from its current a la carte style dining plan and shift towards an all-you-can-eat style plan.
The new plan will have seven-day anytime dining plans and will include unlimited access to campus dining halls.
The new Dining Dollars will replace the current Terp Bucks, which could only be used in campus convenience shops and cafés.
Photo by Cara Newcomer
Starting next semester, students will be able to use Dining Dollars in dining service permanent locations on campus such as Adele’s, the Maryland Dairy, Chick-fil-a, the Taco Bell, Sbarro, Auntie Anne’s and Subway in Stamp, according to the dining services website.
With the new dining plan, the hours for 251 North will change to be open Sunday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. with unlimited access. The Diner on North Campus and the South Campus Dining Hall will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Friday from 7 a.m. to midnight, Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to midnight.
Photo by Cara Newcomer
According to the website, the new dining plan also features a designated number of guest passes that can be used for those without dining plans. Guests can also use cash and Terrapin Express at all three dining halls.
Carryout will no longer be an option with this new dining plan. Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple told the Diamondback this will save six million pieces of carryout material per year.
Freshman Hannah Bress said she believes the carry-out feature should still be an option.
“Its very stupid,” Bress said. “We should be able to take our food to go if we want to.”
Photo by Cara Newcomer
Another new feature will require students to use their finger print to gain access to the dining halls.
“The point of acknowledgment [will be] as you come into the dining hall, not as you leave the serving area,” Hipple told the Diamondback. “So that’s going to be a completely different traffic flow, and then people will have to leave through the same doors they come in.”
The scanner will connect to students’ dining plans and register their meals. Guests would use credit cards, Terrapin Express or cash at this point to pay for their meals.
Bress said the dining plan in place right now is a better system. “It’s fine the way it is,” Bress said. “There’s no need to go changing a system that works just fine.”
Photo by Cara Newcomer
Freshman Ryan Steinberg, however, said any change is a good change.
“Anything is better than the old plan,” Steinberg said. “I just don’t like how it’s literal money for each item. Other school’s dining halls are all you can eat and I like that.”
The new dining plan is set to start August 25, 2016 according to the website. All students living in traditional campus housing are required to purchase a dining plan.