New students finding their way to campus have many options when looking for a dining destination.

Incoming freshmen and transfer students who will be living in the residence halls have a variety of locations, foods and meal-plan options to choose from.

“We strive to provide healthy meal choices and I think we do a really good job providing our students with a good variety,” said Maxine Bailey, assistant director of Residential Dining .

NIU’s Student Housing and Dining Services offers three different meal plans which give students an allotted sum of money to spend each week in any of the residence hall cafeterias on campus. Students and parents can choose from Gold: $55 per week, Platinum: $80; or Titanium: $100. The cost for the meal plan is added to the student’s room and board rates each semester. Once the semester begins, all a student has to do is find any dining location on campus and use their NIU OneCard to purchase food.

Students also have the ability to purchase Huskie Bucks, which is additional money that can be included on a student’s OneCard. Huskie Bucks can be used in all residence hall cafeterias, numerous restaurants in the DeKalb area and also must be used to do laundry in the residence halls.

“I usually eat dinner in Stevenson because they have a little of everything and the food just seems better there,” sophomore accountancy major Janice Anderson said.

Students that have Huskie Bucks use them for a change of pace.

“Sometimes the dorm food can get a little repetitive and that’s when I like to go somewhere like McDonald’s for something different,” Anderson said.