The University of Utah’s campus dining scene has not always had a glowing reputation. Student concerns have ranged from a lack of dietary accommodations to meal transfer limitations. For a while, it seemed like no one was listening.
All that changed on Aug. 14, when a slew of new dining improvements was announced, taking effect immediately. While these changes, along with renewed emphasis on student feedback, are excellent steps in the right direction, the U must address lingering concerns about taste, travel and transfers.
Addressing Concerns
U Dining Services has been significantly revamped under President Taylor Randall’s “Impact 2030” initiative, leading to significant institutional changes. This restructuring included the hiring of new executives, Kyle Suerth, Anthony Roberts Jr. and Rich Strzok.
Among the U’s top priorities in addressing student concerns is diversifying the kind of food available. The Dining Services 2025 Business Plan, as per an internal brochure obtained by the Chronicle, refers to this as “destination dining”. “I want each of my places and spaces to be unique in terms of its operation,” Roberts said.
An expanded array of grocery items is now available. Additionally, GrubHub will eventually replace the current Tavlo mobile ordering system in an effort to consolidate technology.
Even the basic economy of meal transfers has been tweaked. In addition to dining locations going fully cashless, transfers are no longer on traditional block plans. Instead, they are updated weekly. Meal transfers are now accepted at any official U Dining Services operation.
“There could be menu items that would be just worth [the amount of a transfer, $8.75], so you would owe nothing else. If you wanted another item that was not that … you then pay the difference,” said Roberts. These improvements demonstrate that U dining is on a long-awaited upward trajectory. Student concerns are finally being heard.
Randallian Vision
These updates are the brainchild of Randall’s “Impact 2030” initiative, which seeks to achieve what Randall has called “college town magic”.
Kyle Suerth, the new Resident District Manager for U Dining Services, emphasized the role Impact 2030 plays in the recent dining changes. “We’re really focused on the 2030 strategy for campus,” Suerth said. “The push was to bring in people with a little bit different expertise in running things.”
Randall’s Dining Services’ objectives center on sales growth, prioritizing consumer feedback. The message students were sending about dining satisfaction was, to some extent, received.
Roberts explained that progress on dining improvement has been slower than students may have wanted because of the need to balance the interests of many involved parties. “There’s a lot of stakeholders within this,” Roberts said. “… there’s a lot of agreement [that’s needed].”
When asked who among these stakeholders is the most important, Roberts was firm and clear. “The students, our guests, those who dine and eat at my location,” he said. “I’m more or less ensuring that they are happy, content and fed.”
Adventures in Taste
Dining hall improvements have been swift and decisive. Overall, taste and consumer experience are being examined more critically than they were before. A special pet project of Roberts’s has been a greater emphasis on student feedback kiosks at each location, using student feedback data as a stepping stone to enhance change.
“It’s a data collection method where we’re asking students, ‘give me your feedback, good, bad, or] indifferent on how dining services operations are operating overall,” Roberts said.
Miscommunication is the one thing Dining Services would like to avoid in the future. “Dining, I felt, was in a silo within the university,” explained Roberts. “… I don’t think the story of what dining was doing was told much, largely to the university community.”
Food taste and convenience have improved. There are more room service options for students at Lassonde and Epicenter, as well as greater dietary accommodations, including a halal barbecue at Kahlert dining hall. “We have a program called ‘Don’t Be Shy, Please Identify,’” Roberts explained. “So, anyone that does have dietary restrictions, we ask that you contact us.”
Various restaurants are now open for longer, including Panda Express, which now closes at 8 p.m. Later opening times are beneficial as students often work late into the night. For realistic working young adults, light night room service options are not just nice, but necessary.
Misadventures in Taste
Some doubts linger about the efficacy of the new dining program. Some of the latest food concepts simply do not taste great. The U has maintained its current executive chef, Ken Ohlinger, who creates the menu for many restaurants that remain “internal concepts.” In contrast, only a few restaurants on campus are recognizable food chains or “external concepts,” like Panda Express or Cupbop.
For Grace MacInnis, a freshman at the U, when given a choice between Ohlinger’s cooking and a recognizable chain restaurant, the choice is obvious. “[Cupbop] is the only edible food on Campus”, MacInnis said. “I can’t eat anywhere else [because] the dining halls are so bad. It’s the same thing every time, and it’s poorly executed.” Ohlinger’s monopoly on campus taste should be reexamined if his work is consistently striking out with students.
MacInnis also had concerns about workforce competency, even at Cupbop. “They’re a little bit of a mess sometimes,” she said. “The last time I came, the ordering [apparatus] didn’t work.”
Other students, like QAMO major Blake Tyler, have come to live with U Dining’s shortcomings. “It’s good for what it is,” Tyler said. “You can’t expect much out of college food.”
A common, yet unaddressed, gripe among students is the meal transfer system. James Blackford, a student volunteer at the Union’s Feed U Pantry, thinks meal plans should include more freedom. “You pay for it,” Blackford said. “You should be able to use it whenever you want.”
The changes the U has made skim the surface of student concern while leaving deeper issues bubbling beneath. To regain student trust, the U must provide a service that is both convenient and in demand. U dining options are currently neither of these things. Students must continue to engage to drive further change.
