Terms and Conditions

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RIT Dining Dictionary

Commuter: Any student who is not living in RIT Residence Halls, the RIT Inn or 175 Jefferson. Commuters 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 plan 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 an RIT ID, or Tiger Pay (available only at RIT Dining locations) card to purchase goods with Dining Dollars.
Greek Meal Plan: A meal plan available to full Greek members living in their established approved Greek Housing in Greek Circle. The residence halls are not considered Greek Housing for the purpose of qualifying for a Greek Meal Plan.
Meal Plan: A Meal Plan is a prepaid account for a student’s on-campus meals. At the start of the term, students pay for a predetermined plan to cover their meals throughout the semester/academic year. To purchase a meal, students must swipe their RIT ID card and the meal or meal cost is deducted from their meal plan account. All resident hall students are required to have a Meal Plan (see Required Meal Plan). Choices for meal plans can be found here.
NetNutrition: A tool that provides menu options, nutritional, and allergen information for select RIT Dining operations. This information can be found in the RIT mobile app under Dining or by clicking here.
Optional Meal Plan: A meal plan available to any student who does not live in RIT Residence Halls, the RIT Inn, or 175 Jefferson that have a booking through RIT Housing. Available meal plan options can be found here.
RA Meal Plan: A meal plan consisting solely of Dining Dollars that are provided from Residence Life to Resident Advisors as part of their employment. RA Meal Plans are not subject to the refund schedule.
Required Meal Plan: Meal Plans are required for all students living in the Residence Halls, RIT Inn, and 175 Jefferson that have a booking through RIT Housing. Available meal plan options can be found here.
Rollover Dining Dollars: Dining Dollars that have not been spent by the end of the term in which they were purchased, and have been carried over to the following term. If a student has Dining Dollars remaining at the end of each semester, 100% of the unused Dining Dollars are carried over to the following semester as Rollover Dining Dollars. Rollover Dining Dollars are not considered to be a Meal Plan, do not satisfy the required meal plan policy, and are not subject to the refund schedule.
Sponsored Dining Dollars: Dining Dollars that have been added to an account through an RIT-funded source. These funds may be subject to RIT’s taxable income reporting. Sponsored Dining Dollars are not considered to be a Meal Plan and does not satisfy the required meal plan policy. Sponsored Dining Dollars are not subject to the refund schedule.
Student Financial Services: The Office of Student Financial Services is RIT’s central billing service center for tuition, fees, and other charges incurred by students.
Tiger Bucks: A taxable electronic form of payment. Tiger Bucks may be used on or off-campus at approved vendors. Tiger Bucks may be used to purchase food or beverages, or items other than food or beverages from approved vendors as well as all RIT Dining locations. An RIT ID must be used to purchase goods with Tiger Bucks.
Tiger Spend: An online portal used to add Dining Dollars and Tiger Bucks to a student’s account as well as check balances, view transaction history and request guest funds to be added to a dining account.
Voluntary Dining Dollars: Dining Dollars that can be purchased in addition to or without the benefit of a Meal Plan. Students may purchase Voluntary Dining Dollars through the online Tiger Spend website. Students should note that Voluntary Dining Dollars are not considered to be a Meal Plan and do not satisfy the required meal plan policy. Voluntary Dining Dollars are not subject to the refund schedule.

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 the RIT Meal Plan begin when the student’s meal plan is opened by RIT Dining and ends when canceled by either RIT Dining or the student.

RIT Meal Plans, Dining Dollars, and Tiger Bucks are placed on a student’s RIT ID card. Dining accounts are non-transferable, and a student’s RIT ID card will be confiscated if used by anyone other than the student.

Each student is responsible for safeguarding their 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 through the RIT Service Center at 585-475-5000 or at help.rit.edu, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 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. A replacement card may be obtained at the Registrar’s Office. Replacement cards will be made in accordance with current policies regarding card replacement. The cardholder will be responsible for any replacement fees.

Business Practices

Under this Agreement a student’s rights and privileges are non-transferable; they belong exclusively to the student and may not be assigned to anyone else on a temporary or permanent basis.

RIT Dining reserves the rights to collect payment through the student’s RIT Student Account for charges that may include but is not limited to: bad checks, disputed credit card charges or offline transactions. Payment will be collected through Student Financial Services.

For convenience, students may purchase, view, and manage their RIT Dining account online. Students may purchase Tiger Bucks and Dining Dollars by using a credit card or EFT. Students can log into their account using their official RIT username and password. Students should NOT reveal their password to anyone. Neither RIT Dining nor RIT is responsible for any unauthorized charges to a student’s account.

Official information regarding a student’s RIT ID card and RIT Dining accounts are sent via email to the student’s official university email account. RIT Dining reserves the right to contact all students who are on an RIT Meal Plan and all RIT cardholders by mail, e-mail, or other electronic means regarding official information concerning RIT Meal Plans and associated programs. Students should note if they forward their RIT email to another email address, they may not receive this official information. Students may not opt-out of receipt of this official information. If the notification emails are blocked, it is the student’s responsibility to be aware of official RIT Dining information.

Students may sign up for an RIT Meal Plan at mylife.rit.edu. RIT Dining agrees to rollover the unused balance as follows:

100% of the unused portion of the Dining Dollars balance attached to the RIT Meal Plan and 100% of Voluntary Dining Dollars will be rolled over from semester to semester until they are either depleted or the student leaves the university.

These Terms and Conditions supersede any and all prior RIT Dining Terms and Conditions. Upon reasonable notice, RIT Dining can modify the Terms and Conditions during the term of this agreement. The modality of instruction, and the start and end dates for academic term instruction, on-campus housing and dining services, may vary from year to year.

Meal Plans

General Information
An account holder will not be required to pay New York State sales tax on an RIT 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, or tobacco products with any Dining Dollars account is strictly prohibited. If a student leaves the university before the end of the semester, their account may be subject to a New York State sales tax charge determined by the meal plan usage.

Required Meal Plans
RIT Dining meal plan participation is required for all students assigned to RIT Residence Halls, the RIT Inn, and 175 Jefferson that have a booking through RIT Housing. If no meal plan is chosen by the student, any student needing a required meal plan will be issued and charged for the lowest plan available to them. The meal plan may be changed up until the Sunday before classes begin (please see, Changes to Meal Plan ) and can be upgraded to a higher cost meal plan at any time.

Upon signing a RIT Housing contract, a student’s Dining Dollar and Tiger Bucks account is opened and the account holder is immediately responsible for all Dining Dollars used and posted against their account. Students living in RIT Residence Halls, 175 Jefferson, the RIT Inn and must choose a first-year or upperclassman meal plan based on their class status. Students living in Greek Circle must choose a meal plan based on class status or a commuter/Greek Circle meal plan.

Commuter Meal Plans
Commuters may purchase an Optional Meal Plan at any time in the semester. Students may sign up for a meal plan at mylife.rit.edu.

Changes to Meal Plans

Changes to meal plans may only be made up until the Sunday before classes begin at the start of each academic semester (fall and spring). Changes to meal plans for the summer semester may only be made up until the first day of summer classes. Changes to meal plans must be made online at mylife.rit.edu. A student may upgrade their meal plan at no additional fees outside of the difference of the meal plan cost.

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.

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, stationery, toiletries, art supplies, etc.) at approved on and off-campus vendors. There is no limit to the amount of Tiger Bucks that students may add to their account or spend in a day.

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. Students cannot purchase Tiger Bucks with Dining Dollars.

Tiger Bucks carry over from semester to semester and remain 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.

RIT Dining reserves the right to contact a customer and/or take action because of unusual activity on a customer account.

Deposits and Balance Verification

Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express deposits may be made to Voluntary Dining Dollars or Tiger Bucks accounts anytime by going online to the Tiger Spend website or through a Tiger Spend Reload Station located in the SAU, Grace Watson or Crossroads. Check deposits may be made in-person at the RIT Dining Business Office located in the Student Alumni Union, room A520 by appointment only. To schedule an appointment please call our office at 585-475-5000 or at help.rit.edu. Verification of account balances may be made anytime by going online to the Tiger Spend website, contacting the RIT Dining Business Office, a cashier at any dining location, the RIT Inn or a Tiger Spend Reload Station. Student accounts cannot be billed and must be paid in advance with cash, check, Visa, MasterCard or Discover.

Cancellations & Refunds

Students may cancel their meal plans at any time. Refunds for canceled meal plans will be provided as follows:

Meal Plan/Dining Dollars Refunds

Required Meal Plans (First year, Upperclass, RIT Inn, and 175 Jefferson that have a booking through RIT Housing),
Unused meals/Dining Dollars cannot be refunded unless a student is officially released from the RIT Residence Halls, the RIT Inn, 175 Jefferson or Greek Circle 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 forfeited to the University if the student leaves. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Rollover Dining Dollars and Voluntary Dining Dollars are not considered to be an RIT Meal Plan and are non-refundable.

Optional Meal Plans (commuter, on/off-campus apartments)
Unused Dining Dollars that are a part of an Optional Meal Plan cannot be refunded unless a student 1) withdraws from the University (graduation does not constitute withdrawal); or 2) incurs an academic or disciplinary dismissal. Students may receive a partial refund on their meal plan in accordance with the refund schedule (see below) minus sales tax placed on the used portion of the meal plan. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Rollover Dining Dollars and Voluntary Dining Dollars are not considered to be an RIT Meal Plan and are non-refundable.

The refund schedule is based on the RIT Housing check-out date or the last usage date of the student’s RIT Dining meal plan, whichever is later. Refunds will be applied to the student’s account at Student Financial Services. If there is any usage on a meal plan, students will see a NYS sales tax charge on their student account for the portion of Dining Dollars that was spent while on campus. Rollover Dining Dollars and Voluntary Dining Dollars are also subject to NYS sales tax charges.

Sponsored Dining Dollars, RA Meal Plans, Rollover Dining Dollars, and Voluntary Dining Dollars are non-refundable and not subject to the refund schedule.

Spring 2022-23 Refund Schedule

Prior to the start of classes - 100%
Week 1 (January 17 - January 24) - 100%
Week 2 (January 25 - January 31) - 75%
Week 3 (February 01 - February 07) - 50%
Week 4 (February 08 - February 14) - 25%
After week 4 (February 15 and after) - 0%

Tiger Bucks Refunds

Tiger Bucks may be refunded to students once they officially leave the University or by authorization of RIT Dining. If a student officially leaves the University without requesting a refund of their unused Tiger Bucks, RIT Dining will maintain the unused Tiger Bucks balance for three years. There is no expiration date, however, unused balances are remitted to New York State after 3 years in accordance with Article 13 of the NYS Abandoned Property Law.

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