Photo by Rosemary Geib ‘23
By Gillian Petrarca ’23
Staff Writer
Dining at Mount Holyoke College has gone through several changes during the 2021-2022 school year. Unlike before the pandemic, food may now be carried out of the dining hall, and students have access to limited inside dining but are encouraged to eat outside in a tent on Skinner Green. There have also been several changes to the meal plan, including a switch from unlimited swipes to a limit of 25 swipes per week. Yet, despite common misconceptions, dining swipes remain unlimited for the time being, as Dining Services navigates a transitional state between indoor and outdoor dining.
According to the Dining Services website, “all full-time residential students must be on the 25-swipe meal plan, which includes $30 MHC Dollars and three guest passes per semester.” The meal plan swipes will reset each Sunday. In addition to the 25-swipe meal plan, all full-time residential students get one meal swipe at Kendade Grab and Go per weekday.
Emma Xue ’23 was concerned about this new change to the dining plan. “I would have chosen to be on the limited meal plan if it was less money. However, the school’s increased board fee makes this limited option more expensive than the unlimited options that were offered in the past,” she said. Xue also mentioned that entering the dining hall for a limited amount of times was inconvenient. “Sometimes I would like to enter [the Dining Commons] to not eat and to just sit with my friends. I feel like if I do that now I am wasting a meal swipe.”
According to Executive Director of Auxiliary Services, Rich Perna, the swipe limit was decided on in a fall dining plan group comprising three students and three professional staff members. Students were invited to Zoom meetings to decide on what the exact swipe limit would be. Xue, who attended these meetings, said, “I felt like the meetings were more for taking feedback and complaints about an already-made policy, not meetings to make policy.”
Perna stated that the 25-swipe limit will not go into place until Dining Services has transitioned into full capacity indoor dining.