On Feb. 6, 2025, NYU Abu Dhabi announced its new change in dining policy, raising the weekly amount of Flex Dirhams from 63 to 84 AED, the meal swipe value from 31.5 to 33.6 AED, and raising the limit for Swipe it Forward contributions from 150 to 250 swipes per week.

These changes are implemented as a result of student outcry since the Fall 2024 semester, following the rise of prices in D1 and D2 across different items and meal values. This price increase initially occurred due to inflation and the food waste that Royal Catering Services (RCS) was losing profits to, as discovered in an interview with Eva Vang, the Dining Committee Chair at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Eva and the other Student Executive Council Board members, Levith Andrade Cuella, Alia Almuhairi, and Confidence Ezemba, worked with different leadership at NYUAD to ensure these changes could and would be implemented, including Vice Chancellor Fabio Piano and Chief Operating Officer Amol Dani. Eva recalls that the dining inflation was often at the top of meeting agendas and was one of the most prominent problems during Fall 2024 community listening sessions.

The initial attempt to resolve this issue consisted of short and long-term solutions. Short-term solutions, such as lowering the prices of certain items or creating specific meals to fit the meal swipe amount, did not address the wider issue of student complaints about the lack of flexibility in a meal swipe. Long-term solutions, consisting of a raise in students’ flex and meal swipe amount, seemed practically achievable, though they take time.

The delays in these long-term changes have various causes. NYUAD administration had to reallocate money from the budget of various departments in order to account for an increased value of flex and meal swipe, requiring their agreement prior to the official announcement. This reallocation of money means that these changes will not affect partial aid or paying students at NYUAD, who will continue to pay the same price for their meal plan as they always have.

As for the timeline going forward, the Swipe It Forward program will increase its meal swipes effective immediately and the Flex increase is expected to be implemented by March 1. While these are positive changes in our campus community, our Dining Committee remains hard at work. There are still meetings with the dining department to ensure that the additional two dirhams in a meal swipe will allow students to indeed be able to purchase something of additional value. Moreover, the issue of food waste in dining halls remains as both a sustainability and profit concern for RCS and NYUAD. The usual issues of dietary restrictions and food quality are also still present in the dining committee’s agenda.

Nonetheless, these changes have come about quickly considering how recent the dining issue has been. The hope is that these increases in flex and meal swipes will be a long-term solution to the dining currency inflation issue, providing students with more flexibility in their diets.