Service with a star: campus dining must cater to tastes, concerns, and innovations to ensure that students are getting the most out of the programs. These seven institutions are having success in bringing students to the table

University Business, August, 2007 by Michele Herrmann

Common Grounds, another grab-and-go, specializes in sandwiches, while Subversions, also a sandwich shop, has an Edy's Ice Cream Dipping Parlor. Students can also go to Hawk's Nest at Lamberton, a grill featuring breakfast all day and a $1.99 value menu. The Wood Dining Room at Mountaintop, inside Iacocca Hall, offers diners both a daily lunch buffet and a panoramic view of the Lehigh Valley. Brodhead is yet another student restaurant.

Changes All Around: University of Mary Washington (Va.)

The University of Mary Washington Dining Services is giving its facilities some cosmetic changes. Among them is Eagle's Nest, a snack bar/meeting place, which is going to welcome in a Cyclone Salads, notes John Dering, general manager, Dining Services. Eagle's Nest already contains Sodexho's Smart Market, a pizza place, a grill, a Jazzman's Cafe, a coffee shop, a dell, and a made-to-order station for burritos, tacos, and nachos, and Sizzles, a selection of microwaveable edibles. Students can hang out and watch a program on the widescreen TVs in the facility's back room.

Inside Seacobeck, the university's main dining hall, there are three dining rooms. The Washington Diner features the Grill, with all-American standards such as burgers and hot dogs; Hometown provides home-away-from-home comfort foods such as macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes; and Top Hits, which runs on a rotating schedule, offers made-to-order items, including omelets and salads. The South Market room contains a dell, south-of-the-border dishes, and Asian-related fare. And UMW Bistro offers pizza, Mediterranean fare, and a pasta station. The dining rooms will be renovated next year, Dering says.

In September 2006, UMW Dining Services initiated a dietary program for students with celiac disease, a disorder that causes the human body to negatively react to wheat gluten. One designated employee prepares gluten-free meals, such as bread made from rice flour. This spring, there were eight students with celiac disease, Dering says, and about 24 more students are expected with the incoming class in the fall. In the future, Dering says he anticipates that this service will expand with a gluten-free station in the main dining room.

Another option is Eagle Express, an on-the-go cart that will be turned into an organic food cart, with free-trade coffee, this September. "[We] plan to call it 'the Green Machine,'" says Dering. Students can purchase items using their dining card or cash.

UMW Dining Services also sponsors weekly visits to residence halls for a social hour in which students can address their dining requests. Most of their suggestions have related to food preparation--for example, asking for steamed instead of santeed vegetables.

The dining program at UMW reaches secondary education students too. Through a program at Mountain View Alternative High School in Centreville, Va., students are trained by UMW employees in all facets of catering, from the correct way to set a table to serving a meal. The program began in the summer of 2006.