Ohio University Dining Services will scale back the embattled Dining Dollars program next year, after only two quarters in existence.

In a campuswide e-mail yesterday, OU announced it will issue 50 Dining Dollars to incoming freshmen only. This year, students with 10 meal plans received 50 Dining Dollars and those with a 14, 20 or super plan got 100.

Dining Dollars next year will be offered only Fall Quarter, said Emily Howard, marketing manager for Housing and Food Service.

Students currently holding Dining Dollars have to spend them before June 8 or lose them.

According to a March 2 Dining Services memo that used January data, Dining Dollars accounted for 61 percent of total sales — which crowded out students, faculty and staff paying with cash, credit cards or Bobcat cash and cost the university an estimated $500 per day in cash business.

Starting April 2, the university decided not to accept Dining Dollars in the Baker University Center food court from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Dining Dollars cost the university $673,624 for Winter Quarter and will cost $659,643 in Spring Quarter, Dining Services wrote in a March 2 memo.

According to the that memo, Dining Services proposed discontinuing the program at the end of Winter Quarter, or allotting incoming freshman $25 for the first quarter only.

About $600,000 in Dining Dollars were spent Winter Quarter, and an estimated $598,000 will be spent Spring Quarter.