Stony Brook University’s Faculty Student Association (FSA) has announced changes to the dining system for the 2023-2024 academic year.
The changes include the expansion of a program that allowed certain students to get free daily meal exchanges at Roth Food Court, as well as an increased list of locations for students to spend dining dollars and the elimination of some meal plan options.
Roth Meal Exchange Expansion
Starting this fall, any student on an unlimited meal plan will receive a free daily meal exchange at Roth Food Court. This is a change from the previously used system that only gave free meal exchanges to residents living in Roth or Tabler Quads.
Earlier in the summer, FSA had posted on their website that students on the Block 100 meal plan would also be able to receive a free daily meal exchange at Roth, according to an archived version of the meal plan webpage accessed using the Wayback Machine internet tool. This has since been removed from FSA’s website, meaning that students on the Block 100 plan will not receive this benefit.
“All students on the unlimited meal plan (Wolfie Deluxe or Wolfie Standard) have the option to use one meal exchange per day at Roth Food Court, which is open until midnight,” University officials wrote in an email to The Statesman.
Removal of Meal Plan Options
The 48 block meals + 1,250 dining dollars plan has been removed as an option for students. Those who signed up for this meal plan received an email from FSA notifying them that they had been automatically enrolled in the 100 Block meal plan with no explanation for the change.
The 180 block meals + 250 dining dollars plan was also removed.
The Wolfie Plus meal plan, which offered unlimited swipes, 250 dining dollars and eight guest meal swipes has been removed. The Wolfie Deluxe and Wolfie Standard are now the only options left that include unlimited meal swipes.
All first-year students were previously given the choice of being enrolled in the Wolfie Deluxe or Wolfie Plus meal plan. With the Plus plan gone, the Deluxe plan is now the only meal plan option available to freshmen.
Both the Commuter/Apartment 300 plan and the Commuter/Apartment 900 plan have been removed. The plans gave students 300 dining dollars and 900 dining dollars respectively and were only available to commuter students, graduate students and those living in West Apartments.
Elimination (and partial restoration) of Late Night
Prior to the start of the academic year, FSA had posted on their website that Late Night in the dining halls had been removed and would be outsourced to a new fleet of SBU Eats food trucks. Now, only a few days into the start of the academic year, that decision has been partially reversed.
Late Night in the dining halls has returned but is only available on weekdays and ends an hour earlier than last year, running from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. The door cost of $10.50 has remained unchanged from last year.
“SBU Eats received input from students through the website feedback form, listened to their concerns and then expanded the late night dining program to include more options,” University officials said.
Even though the dining halls will no longer be serving food after midnight, their seating areas will remain open till 1 a.m. each day to give students a place to eat any food they purchase elsewhere.
New Dining Locations
Several dining locations have also changed throughout campus. Tadka, a station selling Indian food in Roth Cafe, has been replaced by Fuze, a stir fry station.
At East Side Retail, Urban Eats has been replaced with a wing station called Wicked Wingz. A temporary Starbucks location has also opened at East while the one in the library undergoes repairs due to a fire that took place there last semester.
In the SAC Food Court, a grilled cheese location called Gourmet Melts has been added, as well as a new station called Healthy by Nature. Global Flavour, a station selling food from around the world, has also been added.
