Talking Stick - November/December 2008 - (Page 30)

Special Focus Bringing Your Dining Hall Up to Speed by Meredith Whipple Atmosphere and menu selection are critical for student approval. Before and after shots of the pizza counter in the Robertson Dining Hall, called Rob’s Café, on the University of Akron campus. Look around your school’s dining hall. If you see square tables with hard plastic seats, lined up in rows in a cafeteria that serves a generic meal onto the trays of a single long line of students, it may be time to renovate. Cafeteria-style dining halls on campuses are turning into multi-room, food-court style lounges with endless variety. The University of California in Santa Barbara, whose renovation of the De La Guerra Dining Commons received the 2007 Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture from the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), is no stranger to the innovations of both food selection and facility features in campus dining. The hall boasts more than just its architectural features, which include an illuminated glass entry tower and an outdoor patio with seating both under canopy and in full sun. It also displays cooking. “We aim for showcasing platform food production,” says Bonnie Crouse, assistant director of residential dining services at UC-Santa Barbara. “We make all our baked goods from scratch, and we wanted this great feature to be visible to students.” 30 Talking Stick John Fusco is a resident district manager for Sodexo Dining Services, one of the largest food service companies in the nation, which is often hired by colleges and universities to plan, construct, and manage their dining facilities. He recently worked on the Russell Sage Dining Hall renovation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York; the dining hall reopened in August, and incorporating display cooking became an essential part of dining hall renovations. “The students like their food cooked to order,” says Fusco. “They see its being freshly made as opposed to sitting out for a while. It’s a ‘wow’ factor.” Staff at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign used focus groups to decide what would be changed in the renovation of the dining hall for their Pennsylvania Avenue residence halls, which reopened in August. They moved to made-to-order display cooking in response to their customers’ requests. Students “made it clear they are seeking customization of food; they want to see their food prepared,” explains Dawn Aubrey, senior assistant of dining services. “It gives them a personal feeling and allows them to see what is going into their food.”

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - November/December 2008

Talking Stick - November/December 2008 Contents Online Now Vision Just In Your ACUHO-I Transitions Res Life Facilities Business Special Focus Calendar Finding Inspiration in Unexpected Places The Evolving Role of the Resident Advisor Conversations First Takes Reporting Out New Members Snapshot

Talking Stick - November/December 2008

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