Changes to Ithaca College’s meal exchange system, where students use a dining hall swipe for a free meal at an on-campus cafe, have had some negative consequences to start the fall semester. While students acclimate to the new system, the selection at the campus dining halls has been criticized.
Sophomore Paige Strickland is frustrated with the situation, especially the dining halls. “I feel like there could be more than what they already serve,” said Strickland, referring to the menu options.
The importance of the dining halls has increased since the meal exchanges were altered. However, the menu remains static. “It’s just very repetitive after a while. You’re just always eating the same thing,” said Strickland.
Starting in the Fall 2025 semester, the college relocated many of its meal exchange options. Due to a lack of communication from administration to students, the change was not common knowledge and thus became a hot topic on campus.
During this commotion and uncertainty, the student body has had to rely on the dining halls. The thin menus have only aided in the outrage concerning the meal exchanges, students say.
‘Not a huge fan’
The college serves the same things on the same days every week in the dining halls. For example, Campus Center Dining Hall (CC) has roast beef for dinner on Monday for one week, beef and broccoli the next, barbecue ribs after that and then the cycle repeats.
“I’m not a huge fan of the food options,” said junior Luke Fitzpatrick. “It gets it done, but I’m overall a little disappointed by [the dining halls].”
Reginald Briggs, director of dining at the college, said that the dining halls (CC and Terrace) are on a strict 3-week meal rotation. Some meals that Briggs called “hits” will be seen more during that time.
Briggs mentioned that the dining hall menus rely on a fixed structure due to contracts the college has with various food companies. “We’re not going to buy Barilla pasta one week and then buy… Rosetti [the next].” The college is able to get discounts on sales this way.
In turn, the college requires students to get large meal plans to accommodate for all the food they buy. The minimum meal plan for underclassmen is currently 24 dining hall meals plus 7 meal exchanges a week.
Solutions for student hunger
Tim Downs, vice president of finance and chief financial officer of the college, brought up the issue of food insecurity for students. “When students are worried about where they are going to get their food, it detracts away from their [educational and overall] experience.”
A study done by the U.S. National Library of Medicine in 2019 reported that 30-50% of college students have food insecurity, and it’s proven to lead to higher stress, higher depression and less sleep.
Meal exchanges are part of the solution to this problem, as it concerns the college. Downs said that students were “clamoring for different options,” because the lines at CC and Terrace were so long.
Briggs said that before the meal exchange system was implemented in Fall 2023, CC accounted for 68% of the lunchtime meal swipes Monday through Friday. That number is now down to 42%.
The meal exchanges have not disappeared, just moved places, according to Briggs.
“The confusion, to me, wasn’t the changes. The confusion was that our communication was not great,” said Downs.
Data-driven decisions
The exception, Towers Eatery, was shut down because “it wasn’t like we were serving Towers late night… we were literally serving… a dining hall meal,” said Briggs. “It was literally too popular.”
A new meal exchange, Towers Concourse Market, is set to take its place sometime in October. The location will serve pre-packaged sandwiches and ice cream and will be open from 6 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday.
Downs said that these sorts of decisions are made using data. They do not change anything in the dining system unless students are not responding well to it (lack of swipes).
Briggs said that when they do try to make changes, it can take a long time because of nutritional goals and constraints like allergies.
Downs had an interesting take, saying that dining halls will not exist in 10 to 15 years. “What [students] want is almost like the Chipotle option,” he added. “I want to be able to go in, order my thing, go get it, and then go sit with my friends and eat.”
For now, Strickland is frustrated about the way the college handled the meal exchange situation. She did not know about the majority of the changes.
“We have a very strong communications program, you’d think they try to be a little more transparent… but it’s kind of lackluster,” said Strickland.
