Dining Services Policies

Students in the Hilltop Café or in Zamora's Market are expected to follow all College policies (refer to the Compass for current student polices). The following additional policies related to the dining experience also apply.

General conduct

  • Shirt and shoes must be worn at all times in the Café and in the Market.
  • All glasses, dishes and silverware must remain in the Café or in the Market at all times.
  • Students interested in advertising in the Hilltop Café should complete the table tent request form and follow all procedures outlined on the request form. Advertising in any other location in the dining hall is not permitted.

Meal plan use

  • Students who dine in (as opposed to getting their meal to go) are permitted to take with them one piece of hand fruit (orange, apple, banana, etc.), one cookie, one dessert bar or one ice cream cone; no other food or drink can be removed from the Café.
  • Students who get their meal to go (as opposed to dining in) must leave their ID card at the reception stand and will have a short period of time to fill only the allotted to-go containers provided by the dining services staff; students getting their meal to go are not permitted to consume any food in the Café.
  • Provided they have sufficient meals remaining, students may "swipe" in guests into the dining hall; students may also swipe once to dine in and then swipe again to get a meal to go (unless a student swipes twice for the same meal period, a student getting food to go cannot consume food in the dining hall and a student dining in cannot take food from the dining hall except as outlined above).

Meal plan requirement

Since Cornell is a residential college, all students, with the exceptions noted below, are required to participate in the full meal plan.

The following students may request a full or partial meal plan or may opt out of the meal plan:

The following students may request a full or partial meal plan (but may not opt out of the meal plan):

Meal plan refunds

Many students are involved in activities that take place off campus. For short-term events, students are expected to use the meal exchange program and/or the to-go program to obtain their meals. Some activities take students away from campus for an extended period of time. For those individuals, a meal plan refund may be available.

The College will refund a portion of the amount charged for meals in a particular term to any student who completes a Cornell-sponsored off-campus internship, field course, independent or Special Study, etc., provided that the student:

  • Petitions for this refund through Division of Business and Enterprise Services no later than the Wednesday before the start of the term of the off-campus study (complete the Meal Refund Form); and
  • Does not eat any meals on campus during a consecutive 7-day period.

Note the following:

  • Students participating in an off-campus event coordinated with International & Off-Campus Studies do NOT need to do anything regarding a meal refund; the Coordinator of International & Off-Campus Studies will work directly with the College to arrange for the refund based on the range of dates submitted;
  • Students involved in local internships or who are student teaching are expected to use the meal exchange program and/or the to-go program to obtain their meals (in short, students who continue to live in the residence halls during their off-campus program or who are off campus through the off-campus lottery will not receive a meal refund). 

Methods of payment

The Hilltop Cafe and Zamora's Market accept student meal plans, declining balances, credit/debit cards, and gift cards. They do not accept cash payments.

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