With the start of the new school year, Doane rolled out new meal plan pricing because of the new dining hall, similar to how housing prices changed following the construction of Brodie Hall.
Each meal plan (platinum, gold, silver and bronze) had a price increase of $100 as opposed to past years, where every plan was the same price just with a different allocation of Doane dollars and dining hall meal swipes. In an attempt to avoid up-charging students without their knowledge, any student who did not select their desired meal plan in eRezLife during the summer got placed on the cheapest one, the platinum plan. The platinum plan grants students unlimited meal swipes at the dining hall and 50 Doane dollars, which is the on-campus currency used for buying food at The Den or Lakeside.
This differs from meal plans in the past, which rolled over from past years without having to manually select the plan you desire. Students who were on the bronze plan of seven meals and 1,000 Doane dollars and did not manually select the change to their meal plan came to school on the platinum plan.
“We asked returning students to select their meal plan,” Director of Residential Life and Education Brian Stutz said about the changes. “Some students did and some students did not. We also had some students select multiple meal plans and they were getting billed for two meal plans. We had to delete some of those so that could be the reason. If a student did not select the meal plan, they were told they would be added to our cheapest option which is the platinum plan. Students also have until Wednesday, Aug. 28, to change their meal plan to anything they would like.”
Upon learning their plan had been changed, many students last week attempted to change their plan back to the plans they had in the past, one of either gold, silver or bronze. The large number of students switching appeared to overload the system and resulted in students not receiving the Doane dollars their plan should grant them. They were notified on Thursday, Aug. 22, that they would get the dollars on their respective plans.
“We are paying for eRezLife and this is a function the software can handle and want to make sure we are utilizing this so that students can go in, select what they want and make the changes,” Stutz said. “You are required to have a meal plan while living on campus per our policy. We are working through it as a new process and want every student to know that things have been fixed and updated within five minutes of changing. We appreciate the patience of students while we work on this new system.”
Students have until Aug. 28, at 11:59 p.m., to change their plan to whichever plan they wish to have. The platinum plan costs $3,100 and features unlimited meal swipes and 50 Doane dollars. The gold plan is $3,200 with 14 meal swipes and 500 Doane dollars, the silver plan is $3,300 with 10 meal swipes and 750 Doane dollars. Finally, the bronze plan is $3,400 with seven meal swipes and 1,000 Doane dollars. Head to eRezLife to change your meal plan. If you are having trouble, you can email doanehouse@doane.edu. Aug. 28 is the final day to change your plan.
