Dartmouth Dining Services announced in a campus-wide email on Monday that it will implement further changes to the new SmartChoice meal plan starting Spring term and continuing into next year. Meal swipe values for Collis Cafe, Courtyard Cafe and Novack Cafe have been increased to $7.75 for lunch and $10 for dinner, from $7.25 and $9.25, respectively. In addition, DDS plans to continue its extension of weekend late night hours to 2:00 a.m. at Novack Cafe and 12:30 a.m. at Collis Cafe on Friday and Saturday nights. In the fall, DDS will add an additional SmartChoice weekly meal plan, giving students the option to choose from 5, 10, 14 or 20 meals per week. In addition, students can opt for a BlockChoice plan, which will allow students to choose from 45, 90, 125 or 180 meals per term. The SmartChoice and BlockChoice plans will be similarly priced, and all meal plans will continue to offer DBA flex dollar values, according to the email.
Stricter federal regulations could make it more difficult for American students to use federal financial aid to fund their educations while studying abroad, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Most of the changes, which largely come from the 2008 renewal of the Higher Education Opportunity Act because many are only now taking effect, require education institutions that are part of the loan program to meet stricter standards, according to The Chronicle. While U.S. Department of Education officials claim that the new rules are not intended to limit the number of American students studying abroad, the increased costs of compliance could lead some institutions, especially smaller ones, to stop accepting American transfer students with financial aid, the Chronicle reported.
Citing the need to cut counseling costs, Georgia State University recently contracted outsourced employees, who work for a private firm, to replace the staff members of its counseling center, Inside Higher Ed reported. While the move is intended to increase the efficiency of counseling services at the school, having counselors not affiliated with the university may reduce the focus on school-wide programs preventing suicide, alcohol abuse, sexual assault and other forms of violence, according to psychologists interviewed by Inside Higher Ed. Nationwide, student demand for psychological services has increased as university budgets recover from the 2008 recession, and outsourcing these services may not actually lead to a reduction in costs, according to Inside Higher Ed. Instead, outsourced counseling services shift costs to other university departments, such as residential life, and lead to decreased quality of care, Brian van Brunt, director of the counseling and testing center at Western Kentucky University and former president of the American College Counseling Association, told Inside Higher Ed.
