5 Steps to Get Exempt from ASU Meal Plans
Step-by-step guide on how to get exempt from paying for Mandatory ASU Meal Plans
This is the first & best option you should try out of the 7 Money Savers for Food as an ASU Student.
It’s the only option that lets you deal with the True Costs of ASU Meal Plans
Exemption Process
Let me tell ya. This is a long shot. There are no guarantees of it working. It’ll be tedious and annoying.
But you could save THOUSANDS of dollars {LINK}, so it’s worth trying.
“The meal plan problem is only further escalated by how difficult it is for students to be excused from the requirement…students are required to obtain verification from their physician or spiritual advisor that they "believe the student would be harmed if they participated in the required meal plan" in order for ASU to consider their request for an exemption.” —Charyse Padgett, The State Press
You’d think the exemption form and process would be located somewhere on ASU Sun Devil Dining website or somewhere on the “all ASU Forms” page where they ~supposedly~ list all the forms for ASU.
Well, you’d be wrong.
The only public mention of the exemption process is buried in ASU’s massive Knowledge Base and you have to know what to search for to even find it.
Even if you found it, the form they have listed is outdated.
By about 7 years.
Nice.
Well, good thing we found the most up-to-date one for you and made it easy to fill out :)
Here are the steps you’ll need to take.
Step 1: Fill out the Meal Plan Exemption Form
This is the form that automatically creates a pre-filled PDF.
You can find it here:
As we’ve established, ASU doesn’t want to make this easy for you.
So in the “reason for exemption” or “dietary needs,” we recommend filling it out as completely as possible and making a solid case for the exemption.
Use all the lines to justify the need for exemption—whether dietary or religious.
Step 2: Coordinate with Your Physician or Spiritual/Religious Advisor
Next, ASU also requires a written & signed statement from your physician or spiritual/religious advisor adding further justification to what you’ve already said.
Either forward the email we send you, attach the PDF file, or print and have them fill out the physical copy.
Suppose your physician or spiritual/religious advisor fills it out and sends back a separate copy, you’ll likely have to merge the two copies.
Here are some free tools that might help:
Adobe Scan Mobile App - Take a Picture with Your Phone and Create a PDF
iPhone: Adobe Scan
Android: Adobe Scan
CombinePDF - Merge Multiple PDF Files into One
Step 3: Submission
Once you have the final exemption form, either mail it in, fax, email, or submit it in person to ASU University Housing.
Mail: ASU University Housing P.O. Box 870212 Tempe, AZ 85287-0212
Fax: 480-965-1534
Email: housing@asu.edu
In-Person: Student Services Building (Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. MST)
We recommend email. When we spoke to students who successfully acquired an exemption, they all used email.
Timelines
According to the 2021-2022 Exemption form:
“Fall semester requests will not be accepted after September 24, 2021 at 5 pm. Any exemption submitted past this date/time will only be considered for the spring semester. The outcome of exemption requests will be provided via email to your ASU email account. Please allow 10 business days to process your request.
Spring semester requests will not be accepted after February 18, 2022 at 5 pm. The outcome of exemption requests will be provided via email to your ASU email account.
Meal Plans are considered valid charges until approved and students have an obligation to pay for their meal plan until they have been given official communication that their exemption has been accepted.”
Translation:
“We’ll take two weeks to reply.”
“You still have to pay us and we’ll keep your money until we say so.”
We HIGHLY recommend you submit the form at least 4-6 weeks in advance.
The earlier the better.
Otherwise, your money will be locked up as you’re waiting for them to reply.
Step 4: Persistence & Escalation
Now we’ve spoken to some of the students who’ve received an exemption for a meal plan and it’s definitely inconsistent.
They’ve said it “took about a month” for a reply.
Or they’ve had to send several “angry emails” over several weeks for them to get a reply or get approval.
"I chose to get out the meal plan first semester of freshman year … It was a lot cheaper to walk and get my groceries instead and also have better options," said Sarah Taut, a junior studying biochemistry. "(The meal exemption) wasn’t too hard, … but I've heard they’ve given other people a difficult time in the same situation as me."
Personally, it took me a month of continuously contacting housing and dining services in order to get a response to my exemption. I stated my case multiple times, but my reasoning being that the food upset my stomach was not enough for the University to excuse me from the requirement.
Since being excused from the meal plan, Taut and I both have seen improvements in our health and finances.
"My budget probably improved most (and) getting out of a meal plan would have improved (health concerns) anyways since I didn’t have a good reaction to the food when I did eat it," Taut said. —Charyse Padgett, The State Press
Assuming you’ve coordinated well with your physician/spiritual/religious advisor and you have a strong justification, here is the timeline we recommend following:
Day 1: submit the exemption form to housing@asu.edu
Next-Day: follow-up to confirm they’ve “received” the form. Keep following up every 2-3 days until they’ve replied and confirmed they received it
Confirmation: once they confirm, in 4-6 days, if they haven’t responded with a decision, then follow up and ask about the “status” of the meal exemption request
Response: if they respond it’s still “being processed”, then follow up every 4-6 days on the status until you receive a decision from them.
Step 5: Decision
Rejection
Let’s say you get a response somewhere along the lines of:
“We’re sorry, but we’ve rejected…you don’t qualify…blah, blah, blah…”
Well, as one student put it:
“…they just kept rejecting [the exemption request] and giving vague responses saying she didn’t qualify…until about the third angry email…”
“…her roommate had similar reasons…and she was able to [have her exemption accepted] with no rejection…”
“…so there’s probably not an actual criteria…just luck” -S
With that in mind:
Don’t take a rejection as a final answer
Keep sending emails and outline more reasons. Focus on religious or dietary considerations. But you could also use some of the points we outlined in The True Cost of ASU Meal Plans
Bring your parents into the email thread
Bring your spiritual/religious advisor or physician into the email thread
Go to their offices in person and have them explain to you why, sentence by sentence
Keep escalating. Not only have they wasted your time with this terrible exemption process, but they’re also going to be overcharging you and setting you up to lose thousands.
Even if you end up giving up and buying a meal plan, you should try again every semester. Otherwise, you’ll end up overpaying and likely lose thousands of dollars.
Acceptance
If you got lucky and they accepted your exemption, then congratulations!
You can now spend your money on the food you want to eat at the price you want to eat it at.
Next Steps
Whether you’ve successfully gotten exempt from ASU’s meal plans or you decided to buy a meal plan because the exemption process was too much of a hassle make sure to read 7 Ways to Save Money on Food as an ASU Student.
Otherwise, consider using our service to help you get healthy food at a convenient and affordable cost.
Thanks for reading everyone! Hope this was helpful in guiding you through the exemption process.
If there are any questions or clarifications, please comment below!
-Josh