American University is revamping its student meal plan structure, adding new features including dining dollars and mobile ordering credits. The dining changes mark the first sweeping refresh of American's meal plan structure for nearly 20 years.

According to a report from student publication, The Eagle, the new meal plans will take effect with the start fo the fall 2023 semester. Among other features, the university will offer meal plans with unlimited access to campus dining halls and limited access to other campus dining locations.

American has been preparing for the new meal plans and dining options since 2019, but deployment was put on hold while the university conducted renovations to campus dining locations.

The existing dining plans only include meal swipes, meal exchanges and EagleBucks -- American's declining balance tender. The new plans will add a variety of new components, including dining dollars, mobile ordering credit, and guest meals at select dining locations.

The new meal plan structure offers different options for meal swipes and meal exchanges. Some of the additions include:

• The premium meal plan allows for up to three retail meal exchanges per day, while the remaining plans limit the number of retail meal exchanges per week.
• Unlimited access to the campus dining hall comes with a 20 minute minimum “pass-back” time, which requires students to wait 20 minutes before swiping back into the dining hall.
• Mobile ordering credits can be used to order food for pickup from on-campus locations. Once all mobile ordering credits have been used, students can use Dining Dollars or EagleBucks for additional mobile order purchases.
• Flex Plans will be available, which enable students to choose more meal swipes than Dining Dollars or vice versa.

One of the more notable additions is the introduction of Dining Dollars, which will compliment American's existing EagleBucks program. Unlike EagleBucks, which can used at participating off-campus locations, Dining Dollars will only be accepted at on-campus locations.

Despite only being used within the confines of campus, any purchases made using the new Dining Dollars tender will be tax free. Dining Dollars are also the only aspect of the new meal plans that will roll over from fall to spring semesters.