While Brandeis students are still adjusting to new dining provider Sodexo, there may be more change in store for next year. According to two University administrators, the University is considering revisions to the meal plan system, in addition to significant potential renovations of both on-campus dining halls.

In an interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President for Administration Mark Collins said that there is a "strong possibility" of a two-story physical expansion of Sherman Dining Hall on the side of the building facing Massell Quad. Lower Usdan, in the Usdan Student Center, may be turned into an "all-you-can-eat" facility, like Sherman is now. Collins said that the rough outline of these plans calls for the Usdan changes to take place next summer and Sherman to be expanded the following summer.

Collins said that the University also wants to include more upperclassmen and residential students in meal plans, and that some variation of a meal plan might be made mandatory for all students living on campus.

Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel explained the idea, which he characterized as being brought forward by students, in an interview with the Justice. "Most of our peers have an expectation that all of their residential students are on meal plans," he said. "And in fact several institutions have moved to all undergraduates being required to be on ... meal plans. That never received any serious discussion, but I won't say it's off the table if students want to put it out there as a point of discussion."

He also mentioned another potential conceptual change that received attention and discussion during the process of selecting a dining provider last year: "Instead of 'X' meals per week, you just get open access to the meal plan facilities. ... It takes the whole equation but changes it radically." In terms of financing these projects, including the renovations, Flagel said "As part of the [request for proposal] process [last year], what we were looking for was a partner that would take on significant, if not all of the costs of refreshing our facilities. And all of the competitive bidders included that in their proposals." He also said that these projects might move forward rapidly: "we'll have to come to some decisions fairly quickly, because students will want to know by the time we get to the housing lottery process exactly what the configuration is."

-Tate Herbert contributed reporting