By Maria Trovato
This semester, UMD Dining Services is offering four new plans to accommodate off-campus and commuter students who do not need unlimited dining hall access.
According to Dining Services spokesperson Bart Hipple, the decision to add these options came when some students shared their frustrations with the standard Seven-Day Anytime Dining — which currently offers unlimited meals to all on-campus residents for around $2,500 a semester — and the Five-Day Anytime Dining Plan, which offers unlimited meals to off-campus residents Monday through Friday for $1,899 a semester.
“We were hearing from students that they were feeling like they were blocked out from the dining halls,” Hipple said. “We wanted to make sure that the whole campus had convenient access to the dining halls.”
All the new options cost less than the five and seven-day plans, according to the Dining Services website.
“Option 1” is $500 a semester and includes 50 meals, averaging about three meals per week; “Option 2” is $950 and includes 100 meals, averaging about six meals per week; “Option 3” is $1,350 and includes 150 meals, averaging about nine meals per week; and the “Combo” is $895 and includes 250 Dining Dollars and 70 meals, averaging about four meals per week.
According to Hipple, over a thousand students have purchased connector plans.
“I think they are a great value,” Hipple said. “I have been working here a long time, and it is very exciting to me that we have a plan for students who are no longer living in campus residence halls [and] would like to stay connected to the campus community.”
Brandon Smith, a sophomore enrolled in letters and sciences, commutes to class from Silver Spring and is trying the “Combo” plan out this semester.
Smith said the plan works best for him because he likes supplementing dining hall meals with Dining Dollars — but he worries he’ll run out of meals, and thinks he should have more than four meals a week for what he is paying for.
“Sometimes you just have to pay a lot of money for a big university like this,” Smith said. “It would be nice if they could give me more bang for my buck.”
Sophomore finance major Brooke Treiman lives in Leonardtown this year. After comparing pricing each plan out and taking her schedule into consideration, she decided “Option 3” made the most sense for her.
Treiman said the connector plan does make it difficult to keep track of her remaining meals and suggests a way to be notified each time she swipes. Overall, though, she has been satisfied with her choice.
“Leonardtown is kind of far from any dining hall,” Treiman said. “It’s nice that they have all these options for people who are still on campus, but are kind of in that transition from on-campus to off-campus.”