General Terms and Conditions
By signing up for a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Meal Plan, the account holder agrees to abide by all policies, rules, regulations, and procedures of RIT Dining. The terms and conditions of RIT meal plans begin when the account holder’s meal plan is opened by RIT Dining and ends when canceled by either RIT Dining or the account holder, at the end of the semester. If the account holder signs up for a RIT Meal Plan for summer classes, the account will be closed at the end of summer semester.
RIT Dining meal plans, meal exchanges, Dining Dollars, and Tiger Bucks are placed on your RIT ID card. Dining accounts are non-transferable and an RIT ID card will be confiscated if used by an unauthorized individual. Each customer is responsible for safeguarding his/her RIT ID card.
Should a card become lost, either accidentally or by theft, RIT and RIT Dining assumes no responsibility for unauthorized purchases from the account prior to notifying RIT Dining of the loss. To report a lost/stolen card, account holders should contact RIT Dining at 585-475-2228 or in-person at the Dining Office located in the Student Alumni Union (SAU), room A520 Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. RIT Public Safety may also be notified 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 585-475-2853. Upon notification of a lost/stolen card, RIT Dining or RIT Public Safety will deactivate the card, preventing its future use. Account holders are responsible for any usage on the card up until the time it was reported lost/stolen. Cards must be replaced to maintain access and service and a replacement card may be obtained at the Registrar’s Office. Replacement cards will be made in accordance with current policies regarding card replacement and the card holder will be responsible for any replacement fees.
RIT Dining Dictionary
Commuter: Any student who is not living in RIT Residence Halls, RIT INN, or Greek Housing. These include those living in Global Village, Riverknoll, University Commons, off campus apartments, their own homes, etc. Commuters are eligible for the commuter or required meal plans options.
Dining Dollars: A nontaxable electronic form of payment used to purchase perishable and nonperishable food and beverage items in RIT Dining locations and vending machines. Must use RIT ID card to purchase goods with Dining Dollars.
Gracie’s Meal: Valid for one (1) meal at Gracie’s, located in Grace Watson Hall. This meal is only included in the Tiger plans. Gracie’s is our all you care to eat facility.
Greek Meal Plan: Meal plans available to full Greek members living in their established approved Greek Housing in Greek Circle. Certain residence halls have floors dedicated to Greek students. These residence halls are not considered Greek Housing for the purpose of qualifying for a Greek Meal Plan.
Required Meal Plan: Meal plans that are required for all students living in the Residence Halls, or RIT Greek Housing and RIT Inn.
Meal Exchange: Valued at $9.50, Meal Exchanges are options included in the Tiger Meal Plans. Meal Exchanges are used to allow students to eat at other retail dining locations on campus other than Grace Watson. If your meal exceeds $9.50, the difference may be paid with Dining Dollars, Tiger Bucks, cash, or credit card.
Meal Plan: A meal plan is a prepaid account for your on-campus meals. At the start of the term, you pay for a predetermined plan to cover your meals throughout the semester/academic year. To purchase a meal, you swipe your RIT ID card and the meal or meal cost is deducted from your meal plan account. All residential students are required to have a meal plan (see Required Meal Plan). Choices for meal plans can be found here.
NETNutrition: A resource guide to food choices and nutritional information at RIT. Allows students to view menu options and allergen information. This information can be found in the RIT mobile app under Dining or by clicking here.
Optional Meal Plan: Meal plans available to any student who is not living in RIT Residence Halls, the RIT INN, or RIT Greek Housing.
Rollover Dollars: Dining dollars that have not been spent by the end of the fall semester. If returning for the spring semester, these funds will remain on the RIT ID card in addition to any additional meal plan and Tiger Bucks funds.
Tiger Bucks: A taxable electronic form of payment. Tiger Bucks may be used on or off campus at approved vendors. Tiger Bucks may also be used to purchase items other than food or beverages on campus or at the RIT Bookstore. A RIT ID must be used to purchase goods with Tiger Bucks.
Business Practices
Under this Agreement your rights and privileges are non-transferable; they belong exclusively to you, and may not be assigned to anyone else on a temporary or permanent basis.
RIT Dining reserves the rights to collect payment through your RIT Student Account for charges that may include but is not limited to: bad checks, disputed credit card charges, or non-credited checks.
For your convenience, you may purchase, view, and manage your RIT Dining account online. You may purchase Tiger Bucks and Dining Dollars by using a credit card, e-check, or directing RIT Dining to charge the purchase to your RIT Student Account. You can log into your account using your official RIT username and password. Do NOT reveal your password to anyone. Neither RIT Dining nor RIT is responsible for any unauthorized charges to your Student Account.
Official information regarding your RIT ID card and RIT Dining accounts are sent via email to your official university email account. RIT Dining reserves the right to contact all RIT Dining meal plan and card holders by mail, e-mail, or other electronic means regarding official information concerning RIT Dining Plans and associated programs. To ensure receipt of these emails you may need to add dining@rit.edu to your address book. In addition, if you forward your RIT email to another email address, you may not receive this official information. You may not opt out of receipt of this official information. If the notification emails are blocked, it is the customer’s responsibility to be aware of official RIT Dining information.
Meal plans follow the official university calendar. The first meal of each semester is lunch/brunch the day before classes begin. The last meal is dinner on the last day of exams, unless otherwise posted. Summer term starts with breakfast on the first day of classes. Please note, for fall semester, all meal plans are activated for use for dinner on the first day of freshman move in; the Tuesday before classes begin.
The meal plan week begins with the opening of business on Sunday and ends with the close of business on Saturday. Unused weekly meals are not refundable and non-transferable and cannot be used during university break periods. The dining dollar portion of a meal plan ends with the last meal of each semester; however, upon notification RIT Dining will activate the following semester’s dining dollar account early so it may be used during university break periods in select dining service areas and vending machines. The meal portion of a meal plan cannot be used during university break periods.
Students may sign up for a Meal Plan or Dining Dollars Plan at mylife.rit.edu. Account holders will have that semester's dining dollar selection deposited into his/her account. RIT Dining agrees to rollover the unused balance until the end of the academic year as follows:
100% of the unused portion of the Dining Dollars balance attached to the meal plan, and 100% of Dining Dollars voluntarily deposited, will be rolled over to the spring semester at the end of fall semester. Any unused balance at the end of spring semester is forfeited. Any unused balance at the end of summer semester is forfeited.
Terms of this agreement are subject to change upon the sole discretion of RIT Dining with or without prior notice. All changes will be posted in the RIT Dining Main Office and on our website.
Meal Plans
Required Meal Plans
RIT Dining meal plan participation is required for all students assigned to RIT Residence Halls, including Greek Circle and the RIT Inn & Conference Center. If no meal plan is chosen by the student, any student needing a required meal plan will be issued and charged for the Tiger 10. However, the meal plan may be changed the Sunday before classes begin (please see Changes to Meal Plan section).
Upon signing an RIT housing contract, a student's dining account is opened and the account holder is immediately responsible for all meals/Dining Dollars used and posted against his/her account. Students living in Greek Houses in the residence halls must choose a freshman or upperclassman meal plan based on class status and those living in Greek Circle must choose a meal plan based on class status or a commuter meal plan. RIT Dining will deduct meal(s) or food item purchases from the meal plan.
General Information
An account holder will not be required to pay New York State sales tax on a meal plan or Dining dollars purchase. Some non-food items are exempt from all discounting and require the collection of sales tax. The purchase of all non-food items, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products with any portion of your meals, meal exchanges or Dining Dollars account is strictly prohibited.
Commuter Meal Plans
A Commuter Meal Plan can be added at any time in the semester. Students may sign up for a Dining Dollars plan at mylife.rit.edu. Account holders will have that semester's dining dollar selection deposited into his/her account.
Dining Dollar balances cannot be transferred to a Tiger Bucks account. Tiger Bucks is a separate taxable declining balance program used to purchase food and non-food items at various retail outlets on and off campus.
Changes to Meal Plans
Commuters (a student in an on/off campus apartment) who do not require a meal plan, may choose to purchase a meal plan at any time. Changes to meal plans may only be made the Sunday before classes start of each academic semester (fall and spring) by the end of the business day. Changes to meal plans must be made online at mylife.rit.edu. A customer may upgrade their meal plan at no additional fees outside of the difference of the meal plan cost (e.g. changing from Tiger 10 to Tiger 14 meal plan).
Tiger Bucks
Tiger Bucks is another form of tender at RIT. It is subject to New York State tax laws and University Guidelines and Regulations. Tiger Bucks may be used to purchase food and non-food items (e.g. books, stationary, toiletries, and art supplies) at approved on and off campus vendors.
There is no limit to the amount of Tiger Bucks you may add to your account or spend in a day; however, as a precaution, there is a limit of $20 Dining Dollars/Tiger Bucks that may be spent in vending machines each day.
You may use Tiger Bucks to add Dining Dollars to a customer account. RIT Dining reserves the right to contact a customer and/or take action because of unusual activity on a customer account.
Tiger Bucks may not be used to purchase goods or services for resale and may not be converted to, traded, or exchanged to any other form of tender with the exception of purchasing Dining Dollars. Please note you cannot purchase Tiger Bucks with Dining Dollars.
Tiger Bucks carries over from semester to semester and remains active over university breaks and recesses. Except with respect to the funds described in the refunds section (please see Refunds for additional details), Tiger Bucks may not be converted to cash. Vendor refunds or merchandise returns made from Tiger Bucks purchases must be refunded in Tiger Bucks.
Deposits and Balance Verification
Visa and MasterCard deposits may be made anytime online at eservices.rit.edu. Cash, debit, check, and Visa/MasterCard deposits may be made in-person at Student Financial Services, located in the University Services Center (USC), 1st floor, Monday through Friday from 8:30a.m.– 4:30p.m. Customers may verify an account balance anytime online at eservices.rit.edu, the RIT Dining Services Main Office, a cashier at any dining location, the RIT Inn, and Student Financial Services. Customer accounts cannot be billed and must be paid in advance with cash, check, Visa, or MasterCard.
Refunds
Meal Plan/Dining Dollars Refunds
Required Meal Plans (Freshman, Upperclassman, Greek, RIT Inn)
Unused meals/Dining Dollars cannot be refunded unless a student is officially released from the residence halls, Greek Circle, or the RIT Inn either through 1) withdrawal from the University (graduation does not constitute withdrawal) or 2) academic or disciplinary dismissal. Rollover Dining Dollars are not refunded from the previous semester and will be released to the University if the student leaves.
Dining Dollar Meal Plans (commuter, on/off campus apartments) and voluntarily deposits
A refund of unused Dining Dollars (meal plan funds or voluntarily deposited dollars) is only available if the account holder 1) withdraws from the University (graduation does not constitute withdrawal); or 2) incurs an academic or disciplinary dismissal. The account holder may receive a partial refund on his/her meal plan in accordance with the refund schedule (see below) minus sales tax placed on the used portion of the meal plan.
Refund Schedule
Week 1 100% of the unused meal/dining dollars charges are refunded.
Week 2 90% of the unused meal/dining dollars charges are refunded.
Weeks 3 - 5 75% of the unused meal/dining dollars charges are refunded.
Weeks 6 - 8 50% of the unused meal/dining dollars charges are refunded.
Weeks 9 - 16 0% of the unused meal/dining dollars charges are refunded.
Refunds will be applied to the account at Student Financial Services. If there is any usage on a meal plan, the account may be charged a Meal Plan Cancellation Tax which is determined by both the amount of the meal plan that was use and the reason for leaving the University. Any unused Dining Dollars balance at the end of the spring semester is forfeited.
Tiger Bucks Refund
When you officially leave the University or by authorization of RIT Dining, unused Tiger Bucks may be refunded to you. You must request a refund by notifying RIT Dining anytime within three years of leaving the University.
If you officially leave the University without requesting a refund of your unused Tiger Bucks, RIT Dining will maintain your unused Tiger Bucks balance for three years. There is no expiration date, however, unused balances are remitted to New York State after three years in accordance with Article 13 of the NYS Abandoned Property Law.
Cancellations
If you cancel a meal plan and remain at the University, a charge will be imposed based on the refund schedule above.