FAQ Dining Services

Are students living in the residence halls required to have a meal plan?

Yes. All residence hall students select a meal plan as part of residence hall living.

What are the meal plan choices?

Students may select from our Huskie Unlimited, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, or Lite meal plans. The meal plan allocation begins the first week of classes and ends at the close of final exam week each semester. Dining funds are allocated to each resident on Monday at 12:01 a.m. and expire, if unused, by midnight on Sunday. There is no reimbursement for unused weekly allocations, and they do not carry forward to the next week.
For more information, see Meal Plans 2012-2013.

Where do residents eat?

Residence hall students use their NIU OneCard to enter the dining areas and may eat in any of the residential dining service outlets on campus. Meals are served cafeteria style on an all-you-care-to-eat basis in Douglas Hall (dinner only), New Hall and Neptune Hall. In Douglas (breakfast and lunch) and Stevenson Towers, food items are served on an à la carte basis and are purchased with the declining balance meal plan.
For more information, see Venues and Menus.

When are meals served?

Dining service is available in at least one service unit continuously from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday (8 p.m. on Friday). On Saturday and Sunday, New Hall serves breakfast from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and dinner 4 p.m. - 8 p.m.; Stevenson serves lunch from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. and dinner from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Neptune serves lunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. On Sundays, Stevenson and New Hall offer a late night service from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
For more information, see Venues and Menus.

When will meal service begin?

Meals covered by the fall semester’s room and board rate will commence the Friday after move-in. During the period before classes start, the residence halls will be open for the noon and evening meals, and residents will receive a prorated amount of their normal weekly meal plan value. Regular service commences on the Monday classes start. For the spring semester, the first meal served under the room and board rate will be breakfast on Monday of the week classes start. During academic weeks that are shortened by holidays or breaks, residents will receive a prorated amount of their normal weekly meal plan based on the number of service days in the shortened week.

How do I change my meal plan?

You may change your meal plan once per academic year at no charge by completing the necessary form in any of the dining units. Subsequent meal plan changes result in a charge of $25 per change.

Meal Plan Change Form (PDF)

If I lose my OneCard, how do I suspend privileges to it?

If you loose your OneCard, you may go to the OneCard Office web site and suspend the services so that no one can use it fraudulently.