New meal plan system drops bonus bucks, adds options

As more students return to USC for the 2015 fall semester — and campus dining halls once again hum with activity — one question seems unavoidable: “Where did my Bonus Bucks go?”

Bonus Bucks, once a staple of the meal plan program and a similar currency to the meal plan dollars, are no longer distributed to students based on their current scholastic year.

In the past, freshmen would receive $20 per semester for using the meal plan system, a figure that increased annually as they continued to invest in meal plans as upperclassmen.

Those classified as seniors received $200 Bonus Bucks with their meal plan per semester.

USC’s meal system received an overhaul this year, removing a number of features and adding new ones. The fundamental meals-per-week structure is still in place: titles like “Gamecock” (21 meals,) “Cocky” (16 meals) and “Garnet” (14 meals) should seem familiar to students who have used the meal plan system in the past.

This year, however, students have the option to choose from platinum, gold and silver versions of these meal plans.

Alongside the meals themselves, each tier offers “Meal Plan Dollars” for the semester, which function in the same way as Carolina Cash. Silver plans, the least-expensive tier, offer $25 in tax-free credit, gold plans offer $190 and platinum plans offer $325.

So, a student interested in buying a Cocky Silver plan will receive 16 meals per week and $25 in Meal Plan Dollars, while someone on a Garnet Platinum plan would receive 14 meals per week and $325 per semester to spend freely on food.

Like Bonus Bucks, “Meal Plan Dollars are designed to help pay for snacks, coffee, fruit or overages at retail locations,” according to the USC Dining Services website.

FLEX plans, which previously offered students a way to eschew the regimented system of meal periods, have been replaced by a “declining balance” plan — which also boasts a metallic tier system.

The idea for declining balance is similar to the FLEX plan: each student starts out with a bulk amount of meal plan dollars, which then can be used in whatever manner the student in question desires. (It also carries with it the same risk of using up all of one's swipes before the semester ends.)

Higher tiers of this option offer a larger balance and a greater number of free meals at three campus eateries: Honeycomb Café in the Honors dorm (now a buffet), Gibbes Court Bistro and Bates House Diner.