Dining Services Regulations
All resident students are required to take a meal contract. Yale Dining contracts extend only to the named holder of the meal plan. Freshmen are required to have the Full Meal Plan, but may select the optional Anytime Meal Plan Plus Flex Points. Upperclass residents may choose either the Anytime Meal Plan Plus Flex Points, the Full Meal Plan, or the Any-14 Meal Plan Plus Flex Points. Nonresident students may arrange on a term basis for the Anytime Meal Plan Plus Flex Points, the Full Meal Plan, the Any-14 Meal Plan Plus Flex Points, the Any-10 Meal Plan, or Eli Bucks for the purchase of individual meals. Contract meals are not provided during University recesses. To obtain more information about meal plans, visit the Yale Dining Web site, www.yale.edu/dining.
Students who take a dining contract must1 pay the charge of the contract until the end of the term for which it was taken. Bills for additional charges, if incurred, will ordinarily be rendered monthly or before the end of each term. Board bills for nonresident students will ordinarily be rendered on a term basis in advance.
B. Rebates2
Rebates will not be given automatically. No board rebate can be given for any day before the day on which the student advises the Yale Dining Business Office in person at 246 Church Street of her or his status change, or the day on which written notification is received by the Yale Dining Business Office through the mail. The mailing address of the Yale Dining Business Office is Yale University, P.O. Box 208261, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8261.
All undergraduates with dining privileges must present their University identification cards to access any Yale dining hall. Upon entering a dining hall, students present their University identification cards to the desk attendant for electronic scanning. Students who do not present a valid Yale identification card may be denied access to a dining hall. The individual residential colleges reserve the right to limit access to their dining halls at specified times.
D. Misuse or misappropriation of dining services privileges
Dining privileges are not transferable and may not be given or sold to another person. If meals are improperly obtained in a dining hall or in a University retail location, the executive director of Yale Dining or the director’s designee has the authority to impose fines and charges on the offending person or persons.
1. A student who gives, lends, or sells the use of a Yale identification card to a non-Yale person will be fined $100 and required to pay at the current guest rate for the meal or meals taken.
2. A student who gives, lends, or sells the use of a Yale identification card to another Yale student will be fined $100. The student who receives the card will also be fined $100 and will be required to pay at the current guest rate for the meal or meals taken.
3. A nonresident student without a dining contract who has not paid for a meal but who takes food available for self-service or who takes food from another person’s tray will be fined $100 and required to pay for the meal at the current guest rate.1
4. If a student brings a guest to a dining hall with no payment being made for a meal for the guest, and the guest takes food available for self-service or takes food from another person's tray, the student who is the host will be fined $100 and required to pay for the meal at the current guest rate.2
Fines and charges will be billed to the student’s account with Student Financial Services. When the executive director of Yale Dining or the director’s designee imposes a fine on a student, he or she will so notify the student in writing, describing the evidentiary basis for his or her decision. The executive director will also send a copy of this notice to the student’s residential college master and dean and to the chairman of the Yale College Executive Committee, and will, at his or her discretion, with regard to offenses described above, request that further disciplinary action be taken by the Yale College Executive Committee. The Executive Committee itself may also, at its discretion, assume disciplinary authority with regard to the offenses described in these paragraphs.
By exhibiting a Yale identification card, an undergraduate with meal privileges may take meals in other residential colleges, Commons, or the Hall of Graduate Studies Dining Hall.
Additionally, students with classes in the area (which make it difficult or impossible to return to a dining hall for lunch) are allowed to transfer their meal contracts on a cash equivalency basis to the following retail food services at lunch: Donaldson Commons, Kline Biology Tower, Marigolds Dining Hall, and the Divinity School Refectory. The value of the transfer for meals is limited to the cash equivalency for the meal taken. As there are time-period restrictions, students should check with these units before attempting to use their meal contract equivalency.1
Off-campus students who purchase any of the traditional meal plans (the Anytime Meal Plan Plus Flex Points or the Full, Any-14 Plus Flex Points, or Any-10 Meal Plans) are entitled to transfer meals to the dining halls at Kline Biology Tower, the Divinity School, and the Hall of Graduate Studies. They may also transfer meals to Donaldson Commons and Marigolds. As there are time-period restrictions to eating in the latter facilities, students should check with them before attempting to use their meal contract equivalency there. Flex Points or Eli Bucks may be used at these facilities without restrictions.
The manager of a dining hall is authorized not to accept transfers when special activities are being held in the dining hall or at any other time when transfer requests cannot be accommodated. Dining hall managers reserve the right to limit transfers at specified times, as directed by individual masters.
Off-campus students are encouraged to come frequently to the dining halls of their residential colleges. They may purchase the Anytime Meal Plan Plus Flex Points, the Full Meal Plan, the Any-14 Meal Plan Plus Flex Points, the Any-10 Meal Plan, or the Eli Bucks Plan for the purchase of individual meals. Such a contract, when purchased, remains valid for the term and cannot be redeemed. Nonresident students may also charge meals or pay cash for them at the guest rates.2
The service in the Yale College dining halls, which provides free access to the dining hall and unlimited second helpings, makes it inappropriate to charge by the item; payment for the full meal is consequently required. Off-campus students who come to a dining hall must therefore pay for the meal being served or refrain from eating.3
Students are welcome to have guests in the dining halls. Payment at a guest rate may be made in cash or may be charged to the student’s Yale Charge Account with Student Financial Services. Flex Points or Eli Bucks may be used for guests’ meals also.1 For reasons given above, payment for a full meal is required, and it is not possible to pay by the item. Hosts may not share food from their own trays with guests.2
Meal contracts and guest payments entitle a diner to the food being served at a meal for consumption at that time. Food may not be taken from the dining hall to be consumed later. Only the following items are permitted to be eaten "on-the-go": a single beverage in a refillable mug no larger than 24 ounces; a sandwich, burger, or pizza slice; a cookie or brownie, an ice cream cone, or a single piece of fruit.
I. Modified diets/food allergies
A student needing a modified diet or a student with food allergies must submit a physician’s written documentation to, and make an appointment with, the manager of his or her residential college dining hall. Arrangements will be made to comply with the diet as necessary. There is no extra charge for this service. Yale University Dining Services retains the right to require supporting medical documentation from Yale University Health Services.
J. China, flatware, and glassware
Removing china, flatware, and glassware from the dining hall constitutes theft and is forbidden.
K. Use of the dining halls after meals
Students or groups wishing to use a dining hall after meals for such events as dances or plays must first secure the permission of the master of the college and then make their plans known to the dining hall manager.
L. Conduct in the dining halls
The dining halls are important social centers at Yale, and in the residential colleges especially they are the focus of much of the social life of the community. So that they may be places where everyone can eat and talk in comfort, certain activities must be regulated or entirely prohibited.
1. Annoyances. Loudness and offensive boisterousness are inconsiderate invasions of the rights of others and are not allowed. Food-throwing is absolutely forbidden.
2. Soliciting. Table-to-table solicitations are prohibited. Students wishing to solicit for any purpose must consult the dining hall manager; at most times in most of the residential colleges, tables and chairs can be provided for such students near the entrance to the dining hall. Note that the permission of the master is required for a solicitation in a residential college.1 Public announcements, except with the approval of the dining hall manager and the master of the college, are not allowed during meals.
3. Photographing. In general, photographing during meals is not allowed because it interferes with the privacy of others. Written application for an exception to this rule must be made to the dining hall manager and master. Permission is not needed to photograph the dining halls when meals are not being served.
4. Table Tents and Other Notices. These may be placed on tables with the permission of the dining hall manager, in consultation with the master of the college. Table tents containing commercial advertising are permitted in the dining halls only when they are distributed through the Distribution Agency of the Associated Student Agencies.
5. Smoking Regulations. Smoking is not permitted in the public areas of University buildings.
For penalties for misuse of dining hall privileges, see section D, "Misuse or misappropriation of dining services privileges," above. The dining hall manager will refer other violations of the Dining Services Regulations to the master of the residential college, or to the Yale College Executive Committee, for disciplinary action. The master has the right to forbid a student who violates the regulations to enter the dining hall, either permanently or for a specified period of time.
