This morning, Columbia Dining announced that the infamous campus currency Dining Dollars has been renamed “Cafe East Dollars,” because “that’s literally the only place you can use them anyways.”
Columbia has long been criticized for having two different campus currencies included in dining plans, FLEX and Dining Dollars. While FLEX can be used at many local businesses as well as on GrubHub, Dining Dollars have only been usable at Cafe East or Blue Java (or to buy a meal swipe if you’re a fucking nerd). Not even Joe’s Coffee accepts them, despite having multiple on-campus locations. Columbia has long argued that the only reason that Dining Dollars existed was because they helped them dodge taxes, as FLEX dollar purchases are subject to tax, and Dining Dollars purchases were not.
“We were just going to get rid of them and shift to only using FLEX, but the federal budget cuts encouraged us to dodge taxes even harder than before,” commented Executive Chef Michael DeMartino. “I hope you all like boba!”
