Dining Dollars

[Shawna Chambers]

Happy New Year SFS Community! 

I have had some very interesting conversations recently with folks on our campus about our dining contract and how our students use their money.

Our students do not have a self-service option for viewing their dining dollars balance (money for food).  They have to ask a cashier or look at their receipt. They cannot use it off-campus and at the end of each term, students raid the on-campus market so they don't lose their money. 

I am curious to know if other campuses have worked with their contracted food vendor to create more options and transparency regarding students' money for food. Any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thank you!

Shawna Chambers

Assistant Director

Financial Wellness Center

Portland State University

[Marisa Martin]

Hi Shawna, we don’t support housing, but this is what I know.   The students use what is called a Husky Card and their meal plans are loaded into the card at the beginning of each quarter, or it carries from prior quarter also.   They can check their balance in their food account via MyUW – which is the portal that each student has access to that contains all their class and finance information.    So they can check their balance any time they want to confirm.  

 

Hope this helps.  I do know that our students also end up with balances towards the end of the spring quarter and they use it to buy anything that is available to be bought with their funds, i.e. the university grocery store etc.  

 

A MARISA MARTIN

Associate Director

Student Fiscal Services

Finance, Planning & Budgeting

1400 NE Campus Parkway | 129 Schmitz Hall - Box 355870

Seattle, WA  98195-5870

Phone: (206) 221-5950 | Fax: (206) 685-2942

amma...@uw.edu       http://finance.uw.edu/sfs/

 

      

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[Perrone, Lissa]

Hi Shawna,

Our process is similar to what Marisa described.  The students can see their meal plan and dining dollar balances through a system different than their tuition bill.  Same here for students spending their remaining balances on whatever they can at the end of the year. 

 

Lissa

 

Lissa Perrone

Director of Business Services | OSU Controller's Unit

Oregon State University

100B Kerr Admin Building | Corvallis, OR 97339-1086 | Phone: 541-737-6127

 

Please note upcoming schedule changes:

Out of office Jan 14^th through 20^th

 

From: ws...@googlegroups.com <ws...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Marisa Martin
Sent: Wednesday, January 8, 2025 2:26 PM
To: Shawna Chambers <sha...@pdx.edu>; Western Student Financial Services Community <ws...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [WSFS] Dining Dollars

 

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[Krista Borg]

Hi Shawna,

At UO, students can check their meal points balance in the housing portal.  They allow rollover points from week to week, but points are reset to zero at the start of the term.

https://housing.uoregon.edu/mealplans

 

We used to have the same issue you describe below with DuckBucks balances which operates on a separate system from meal points. DuckBucks are basically a prepaid cash amount on the ID card.   I think the balance issue came down to cost of the software system being used for DuckBucks through the ID card office and the system was updated a while back so students can see their credit balance.  DuckBuck credits do not expire.

 

Hope that is helpful,

Krista

 

From: ws...@googlegroups.com <ws...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Shawna Chambers
Sent: Wednesday, January 8, 2025 1:59 PM
To: Western Student Financial Services Community <ws...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [WSFS] Dining Dollars

 

Happy New Year SFS Community! 

--

[Shawna Chambers]

Thanks all... I appreciate your feedback!

All the best,

Shawna Chambers

Assistant Director of the Financial Wellness Center

Student Financial Services

Portland State University

Pronouns: she, they

503-725-5334

Empowering Students to Make Healthy Financial Decisions

Please do not feel obligated to respond outside of your standard working hours as my workday may look different than yours.

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[Sara Rosenberger]

Hi Shawna,

At Reed students can see their board balance on the paper receipt or online in a separate system where they also can do multiple things like check their course schedule, complete required forms, update personal information. Sorry about the late reply!

Sara 

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