The University of Iowa’s dining administration introduced a wave of new food options and a revamped payment system for the 2025-26 academic year, aiming to increase flexibility and convenience for students dining on campus.
According to the UI, there are 5,561 first-year students, which is the second-largest in the history of the university.
Don Stanwick, director of dining services at the UI, said the university has 15 locations on campus that accept meal plans, including the three marketplaces at Burge, Catlett, and Hillcrest residence halls.
This year, dining has shifted from flex swipes to dining dollars to purchase food at other locations on campus. Stanwick said the department decided to get rid of the flex swipe system because it was limiting to students.
“With flex meals, you could only use those in a couple locations, and you could only get certain items,” he said.
Stanwick said in tandem with a recent push to bring a greater variety of brands onto campus, such as brand food trucks at Hubbard Park, according to previous reporting by The Daily Iowan, the pre-existing flex swipe system was unfeasible as the businesses would not take a flex meal.
Stanwick said while this switch took a while to integrate, in a survey sent out by UI dining of over 5,000 UI students, the overwhelming majority said they would prefer a dining dollar system.
The dining dollar system, which are pre-purchased funds that act as a declining balance for food purchases on campus, will stay in place for the foreseeable future, as the system’s integration took up much of the last two years, he said.
“It’s not an easy switch,” Stanwick said. “It involves all aspects of the campus and involves a lot of different moving parts. And to be able to do that, we want to do our due diligence and research and get as much feedback as we possibly can from students.”
The UI’s meal plan options, Stanwick said, are relatively cheap, with the unlimited meal plan costing $2,350 per semester. UI Housing and Dining, he said, wants to keep it that way.
“We want to make sure meal plans remain affordable for students,” he said. “So we want to do it in a way that enhances their experience as well as gives them access to all the locations that we possibly can.”
Some UI students utilize different options and use dining dollars to pay for items outside the market places.
“I live in Mayflower, and we have a market downstairs,” UI first-year student Mary Strommen said. “If we’re hungry, we can just go downstairs and get something with dining dollars, which is really nice.”
UI second-year student Angel Mata said he preferred the flex swipe system.
“I was a little upset flex meals went away because I felt like you got more food with one swipe compared to the new dining dollars system where you spend up to $14 at market places and restaurants,” he said.
The UI also opened Yella’s at Black and Gold Grill, a new restaurant located in Petersen Residence Hall, featuring milkshakes and hamburgers on the menu.
Stanwick encourages students to explore new dining options on campus.
“We get a lot of people, especially first-years, who go to the same places,” he said. “We want people to be able to go out and try different locations.”
Stanwick also said they are renovating the Iowa Memorial Union to bring in national brands, which have yet to be announced. The River Room in the IMU is closed due to these renovations, with renovations slated to be complete by spring 2027.
“We’re working to try to finalize contracts and bids for who can come into that piece, but we’re hoping to have two more national brands coming on campus that we’ll be able to put onto student meal plans,” he said.
UI nutrition specialist Laura Croteau-Lopez said starting this year, she, along with the executive corporate chef, Anne Watson, has been getting feedback from the marketplaces to give students as many options as possible.
“I think having different perspectives and knowledge on different topics within food and nutrition has helped and has changed the menu,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure there’s balanced vegetables, entrees, and vegan items.”