"Senior College administrators were getting complaints and concerns that students on financial aid were not able to eat 21 meals a week without going negative [on DBA]," Newlove said. "Then the bills go home and a lot of times families are unable to pay that additional dollar amount."
The new plan will provide a meal option that will offer a "sufficient number of meals" per week and will be included in financial aid packages, Newlove said.
"Right now the meal system is broke if you are not well off," Newlove said. "The senior administration wanted to develop a plan that betters the largest majority of students. It is not fair that there are your fellow students who run out of money and don't eat right in return."
The new plan was presented to the Board of Trustees with College President Jim Yong Kim's assistance and was passed in a vote, Newlove said.
The new meal plan will require freshmen to select a 20-meals-per-week plan for $1,658 per term while upperclassmen will have the option of choosing between 20, 14, 10 and five meals per week, The Dartmouth previously reported. The freshman plan reflects a $258 increase from the current Green Plan that first-year students are required to purchase during their first term at the College.
The increase in the standard freshman price will help minimize the College's budget gap by ensuring there are enough funds to cover food services, Executive Vice President Steven Kadish said.
Student opinion was considered in the development of both the new meal plan and the renovation of '53 Commons, Newlove said.
"We had formal meetings with a student advisory group during last Spring term and onward," Newlove said. "[DDS] is not a vacuum."
The Class of 1953 Commons Advisory Committee consisted of eight students selected by Student Assembly, according to Assembly co-spokesperson Rohail Premjee '14. The committee was created to give voice to student opinions regarding the dining changes at '53 Commons, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"When we got started, things were going well and it seemed like a great idea," committee member David Seliger '12 said.
After an initial overwhelmingly positive response to the committee's creation, however, efforts to discuss the new meal plan "died out," according to Seliger.
Christian Ortiz '11, another committee member, said the committee met with Newlove once over Fall term to discuss the pros and cons of switching to a pay-per-meal option. Committee members were "split on their feelings about it," according to Ortiz.
"The meeting was productive in that we were able to discuss how each of us would be personally affected by the decision," Ortiz said. "But there was nothing else beyond that."
Newlove said the hybrid plan will provide greater flexibility for students.
In '53 Commons, the new dining facility will include "pod stations" that allows students to "graze" and try more foods than they were once able to in one sitting, Newlove said. Pods will include kosher and vegetarian options, an international station, a bakery, a Panini area, a hearth oven and a cereal and waffle bar.
The Class of 1953 Commons will close at 9 p.m. every night, Newlove said.
Late-night dining will be available at the Courtyard Cafe and Collis Cafe, according to Don Blume, fiscal manager of '53 Commons.
Newlove said DDS will implement changes to curb the potential for waste in the new all-you-can-eat setting.
The renovated dining facility will use food with "virtually no packaging" and will increase opportunities to compost trash, Newlove said.
In an effort to reduce overeating, the dining facilities in '53 Commons will use smaller plates that "better suit the traditional dining style to cut down on the inclination [to overeat]," Newlove said.
DDS also plans to reduce the size of trays and cups, according to Newlove.
Newlove said the research of Brian Wansick, author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think," influenced the changes to the size of the College's containers. Wansick is a former assistant professor at the Tuck School of Business and a current marketing professor at Cornell University.
"While at Dartmouth, I performed studies showing that changing the size of plates from 12 to 10 inches decreased how much people ate by 23 percent," Wansick said in an interview with The Dartmouth. "Four ounces of pasta on a 10-inch plate looks like a huge amount compared to a 12-inch plate, and as you can see, these biases are so hard-wired in people."
Wansick said changing the way food is served is a "tremendous way" to decrease food costs, waste and obesity.
In order to promote informed eating on campus, DDS will offer nutritional data accompanying the food served at '53 Commons, Newlove said. DDS hopes to make the information accessible through an application that can be download on iPhones and iPods, Newlove said.
Despite the changes, Newlove stressed that the quality of the College's food will "remain at the high quality that it has always been at."
"We're here for the students, the president and the dean of the College we're not a corporation or stockholder," Newlove said. "We will never serve low quality food because that would be detrimental to everything that we strive to do."
Dartmouth is the only Ivy League institution with an a la carte dining plan. With the new pay-per-meal plan, the cost of one academic year's worth of food for a freshman with the mandatory 20-meals-per-week plan every term will be $4,884.
At Yale University, undergraduates have the option of choosing between four meal plans, including 14, 21 and an unlimited number of meals per week plans as well as a kosher option. Freshmen are required to purchase Yale's "Full Meal Plan," the 21-meals-per-week option that costs $5,200 for one year $316 more than Dartmouth's proposed freshman option.
Columbia University implements a pay-per-meal system, according to The Columbia Spectator. Columbia's mandatory freshman plan costs $4,400 for one year, $484 less than Dartmouth's new plan.
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth expressed mixed feelings about details regarding the new dining plan.
"I think financial aid students do better with the current DBA plan," Jesse Rieb '13 said. "It gives you the freedom to choose exactly how you're going to spend your money."
Others also questioned the strong focus on financial aid students in the development of the new plan.
"I guess it makes sense, but I'm sure there are bigger factors involved," Diane Chen '14 said. "Not all financial aid students run out of DBA. And if they do, they should learn to manage it better."
Autumn White Eyes '14 said she believed the concern of financial aid students was "a legitimate reason" to change to dining plan.
