Over 1,000 students petition against new meal plan

By Kristal Hanson     9/2/25 9:31pm

When Konstantin Savvon opened the Housing and Dining email announcing the new unlimited meal plan, he was instantly concerned about the impact on off-campus students like himself. 

Savvon recognized that the change from a previously finite number of meal swipes would make it difficult for on-campus students to share their meal plan with off-campus students, signaling a financial burden for those who had been counting on their friends’ swipes.

“I saw the email about the changes to the meal plan and immediately crashed out,” said Savvon, a Duncan College sophomore. 

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Editor’s note: Savvon is the Thresher’s assistant photo editor.

Right then, on a bus ride back from the BioScience Research Collaborative, Savvon drafted a petition that now has over one thousand signatures. Savvon said he figured he would try to turn students’ frustration into data. 

Even with the signatures, Savvon said he doubts that the Rice administration will act on the petition’s call to change the new meal plan. 

“I don’t see [change] happening due to the rhetoric coming from H&D,” Savvon said. 

Other students echo Savvon’s sentiment. Orion Pope, a junior at Martel College, wrote to H&D outlining inefficiencies he saw with the new meal plan and urged them to meet with student leaders. However, he said their response offered only polite acknowledgement and no meaningful engagement with the concerns he had raised.

“We appreciate students voicing their perspectives,” wrote interim Vice President of H&D Beth Leaver, when asked to comment on the petition. “Our goal is to listen, engage and continue improving dining together.”

Pope said he isn’t sure H&D is listening. 

“The plan was made during the summer, a time when basically no student voices could be captured,” said Pope, a Martel College junior.  “I haven’t met a single student so far who has said they liked the plan. Not one.”

Kathryn Hu, who lives off campus and does not have a meal plan, said she budgeted for living off campus with shared swipes in mind. 

“Announcing a new plan three weeks before classes is playing fast and loose with people’s food security,” Hu said. 

Pope also said he thinks the new plan reflects poorly on some of Rice’s core values. Under the old 375-swipe meal plan, sharing was common; off-campus friends could drop in to the serveries for Orientation Week dinners, study breaks or just a quick meal after class. Now, meal plan holders are limited to 15 guest swipes per semester. 

“Rice lists community as one of its core values,” Pope said. “It’s unthinkable for a university to actively exclude students from eating together.” 

H&D, however, said the change was about student needs.

“For several years, students have consistently asked for greater access and longer hours in the serveries, and addressing that has been our goal with this change,” Leaver wrote.

H&D has ensured the new meal plan is enforced; Hu, a Martel College junior, said H&D staff confiscated her friend’s ID when Hu tried to use it to enter the servery. 

“It felt like an escalation,” Hu said.

Leaver said ID confiscation is about more than dining. 

“If an ID is presented by someone other than its rightful owner, we hold onto it and return it to the proper student,” Leaver wrote. “It’s a security issue since IDs also provide access to residential areas and other campus spaces.” 

H&D announced the Rice Swipe Support Program after the new meal plan was announced for students in need to apply for donated swipes. In previous years, the Student Association’s meal swipe donation program allowed student-to-student donations of their finite number of swipes. The new program is funded by H&D in partnership with Student Success Initiatives, according to an email from H&D. Hu did not receive any swipes through the new program.

“I applied for donation swipes and got zero,” Hu said. “Friends got fifteen. That’s not enough.”

College leadership has also felt the limits of the new meal plan. 

“The college coordinator tried to host a meal for off-campus students,” said Ben Sadowski, a Sid Richardson College junior. “H&D told them the A-team isn’t allotted guest swipes. They were really disappointed.”

Sid Rich magister Melissa Marschall confirmed this via email, adding that “it’s not just off-campus students [the A-team] can’t host, but others too … like prospective associates [and] parents.”

For Gabi Varga, a Duncan College junior, the new plan has meant skipping meals. 

Varga said she often doesn’t have enough time to make it back to her off-campus apartment between classes. When she can wrangle a guest swipe from a friend, the waits are unmanageable. Varga said the lunch lines move more slowly with staff checking every ID themselves and struggling to process guest swipes.

“While I once felt heard by H&D, it’s obvious now that students — on or off campus — aren’t a consideration for them,” Varga said.

H&D has a water and fruit station outside the serveries to allow students water and food without swiping, but students said the gesture falls short. Hu called the stations performative, pointing to an off-campus friend on a limited meal plan who H&D allegedly made swipe for getting a drink. 

Sadowski said he witnessed a similar scene at one of the water machines inside the servery. 

“I watched a student fill a reusable water bottle with water. The cashier said they hadn’t swiped in and charged them $11.50 in Tetra on the way out,” Sadowski said. 

McMurtry College Senator Rohan Dharia said the SA warned H&D of student dissatisfaction with guest swipe limits when they first met in June. The two groups compromised by raising the number of guest swipes from ten to fifteen, but Dharia said the change hasn’t solved the larger issue.

“We told them students would strongly oppose only ten guest swipes,” said Dharia, a sophomore. “H&D wanted less ‘transactional’ dining, but it’s created a bouncer vibe at the servery entrance.” 

Now, he said, the effect is visible.

“Commons feel emptier than last year,” Dharia said. “Today at lunch, the servery was almost empty. Usually, you can’t even find a seat.”

Students across colleges echoed the sentiment that some of the new meal plan’s stated goals, such as reducing waste and addressing food insecurity, don’t match the reality. 

“The reasons H&D gave don’t add up,” Hu said. “It feels dishonest — the only real change is that off-campus students can’t eat unless they buy a plan.” 

Sadowksi said the new plan encourages food waste by pushing off-campus students to overload on as much food as possible per swipe. 

“I’ve piled more than I can eat because I don’t want to use another swipe just to get a drink or dessert,” Sadowski said.

In an email to the Thresher, Leaver wrote that students are not restricted to one plate at the door as they were in previous years.

“[Students] can select what they need and take even more than one plate,” Leaver wrote.

Savvon noted that students at other Texas universities pay significantly less for comparable dining. At UT Austin, the unlimited meal plan costs less than Rice’s twice-a-day meal option and about half as much as Rice’s unlimited meal plan. 

Students have suggested possible fixes, from expanding guest swipes to reverting to the old 375-swipe meal plan. Dharia said the best solution would be expanding guest swipes to 30 per semester. He explained this would allow on-campus students to bring off-campus friends to meals or events more freely, reducing the need to ration limited guest swipes. 

Hu said reverting to the old structure would be an improvement in her eyes. 

“Long-term, we need more plan options like other schools,” Hu said. “One size isn’t working.”

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