The South Campus and North Campus dining halls and 251 North all closed at the end of the spring semester for renovations to accommodate the new meal plan, which offers unlimited entries per day, week, month, etc., for those with a meal plan, said Bart Hipple, a spokesman for Dining Services.
“It’s an unlimited sort of plan. … It’s like your kids in your home,” he said. “If you want something to eat, you can come in. … If nothing looks good, you can just leave. You don’t lose anything.”
But individuals without a meal plan will have to pay a set price when they enter the dining halls, Hipple said. Customers without meal plans will pay $7.95 for breakfast, $12.95 for lunch and $15.95 for dinner; all meals include beverage(s) and still follow the unlimited, all-you-can-eat style.
Renovations are mostly completed in the North Campus Dining Hall, Hipple said, and attention is now turning to the South Campus Dining Hall.
“South Campus Dining Hall is in a construction phase,” he said. “We’re doing our best to take care of summer groups, but we know it’s confusing there now.”
In addition to relocating various food stations and reconfiguring stations to a self-serve style, Dining Services is also installing new food temperature equipment, which will heat food, Hipple said.
“In a lot of places, there’s heat coming from above and below, and we’ve had older equipment so we’ve updated to improve food quality,” he said.
Dining Services is also installing hand scanners at the entrances of all three locations. These scanners will replace ID cards, which were formerly used as payment. But these “high-tech” advancements are raising some concerns from sophomore Katie Manders.
“I have mixed feelings about it,” the biology major said. “The hand scanner — it’s cool that it’s high tech, but are they scanning our handprints or our fingerprints? Why does it need to be this personal? What’s wrong with our swipe and our IDs?”
Manders and sophomore government and politics major Audrey Anderle both said they were disappointed the diners will no longer offer a carry-out option.
“It’s nice that you can go in at anytime, [but] the drawbacks [are] no takeout,” Anderle said. “With classes, it can be hard to have to eat in the diner, having been in the freshman [class], I rarely saw the diner filled up. We’re missing out on being able to take it on the go when we have stressful classes.”
Despite these inconveniences, Manders said she understands the change, but said it will ultimately be a difficult adjustment.
“I understand why they’re doing, but it’s hard that it’s a change,” Manders said. “If this is how it was going into college, then no one would bat an eye. … it’s just because they’re changing it that everyone is making a fuss about it.”
Dining Services expects to complete renovations before Fall Welcome, Hipple said. The goal is to have dining halls open the first week of August to test new equipment and serve campus groups such Resident Assistants.
“It’s incredible; it’s a huge amount of work,” Hipple said. “We’re firming up the menus for the different stations; we’re having our nutritionists and her interns reviewing allergies and nutrition accuracies. We’re moving forward on a lot of different fronts.”
