Stanford University students 'pretend to be Jains' to avoid $7,944 mandatory meal plan fee? What's happening

An opinion essay alleging that some students in Stanford University falsely claim that they are Jains to avoid the institution’s mandatory meal plan, has gone viral on social media. The essay, authored by Sebastian Connolly and published in The New York Times, states that students bypass the mandatory rules of the institution by falsely claiming religious affiliations, despite not practising the faith. The author termed this as pervasive "culture of optimization" that exists on campus. The author did not reveal if these students are Indians or of some other nationality.

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Stanford’s meal plan

Stanford’s meal plan costs $7,944, or about Rs 7.17 lakh, for the 2025–26 academic year. This cost applies to the most common dining options for students living on campus, including the 19, 15, and 12 meal-per-week plans. Stanford University allows meal plan exemptions for various categories including documented medical reasons when Stanford Dining cannot reasonably accommodate a student's dietary needs. These are reviewed by the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Applications for exemptions similar to those practicing Jainism are are evaluated by the Office for Religious & Spiritual Life.

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What Sebastian Connolly alleged

Sebastian Connolly in the opinion essay alleged this "loophole" is used because Stanford's dining halls struggle to meet the strict requirements of a Jain diet (avoiding meat, eggs, and root vegetables like onions and garlic), making it easier to receive a full opt-out from the $7,944 mandatory fee. According to Connolly, these students then use the money they would have spent on the meal plan to buy higher-quality, fresher food from off-campus grocery stores like Whole Foods, while others struggle. He termed this behavior as "gaming the system," arguing that students trade advice on how to navigate or bend university policies to suit their preferences. He also questioned the administration saying that they “don't care” and cannot “reform the system.”

“The students I know who claim to be Jain (but aren’t) spend their meal money at Whole Foods instead and enjoy freshly made salads and other yummy dishes, while the rest of us are stuck with college meals, like burgers made partly from ‘mushroom mix’," she writes. Slamming the administration, she asked, “Administrators seem powerless to reform the system and frankly don’t seem to care. How do you prove someone doesn’t have anxiety? How do you verify they don’t need extra time on a test? How do you challenge a religious dietary claim without risking a discrimination lawsuit?"