They can and will give you separate checks if requested - and if you're on different dining plans, they HAVE to give you separate checks to keep the credits coming off the correct room cards. They can even go back & break them up (we had that happen when dining with DD & her friend -- the waitress didn't realize we were in separate rooms with separate dining plan cards...so she had to take the ticket back, cancel the first one & ring up again as separate checks. Didn't even take that long to get it done.) But if you tell the server immediately when you first order, they'll get it right from the start. Same if some of you will be paying cash & some on a dining plan or charging to your room -- they will ring that all up separately if requested.
You will still all be charged the auto gratuity on a large party...even if the party of 7 has seven different checks...each check will show the auto 18%.