U. committee to review campus dining options, get student input

A new University committee is hosting a series of focus groups to generate student input on meal plans and dining options on campus in an effort to recommend more efficient and more flexible options that best suit the University’s diverse student body.

The Princeton University Board Plan Review Committee was created last semester as an extension of the University’s strategic planning process and the strategic planning task force on the residential college model. The committee is co-chaired by Executive Director of Campus Dining Smitha Haneef and Dean of Rockefeller College Oliver Avens and consists of staff and two undergraduate students, Undergraduate Student Government President Aleksandra Czulak ’17, and Michael Zhou ’19.

Haneef said that the University employed “a nomination process to identify key administrators and leadership members” who would be best suited to develop recommendations for campus dining options.

While describing how the committee would inform their recommendations, Aven noted that they were analyzing data from different dining sites to determine how and when they were used. He said that he hoped student input from focus groups and online comments would better help PUBPR understand how dining options fit into students’ lives and schedules.

“We’re taking a look at both qualitative and quantitative data,” Haneef added. “PUBPR is split into three subcommittees with specific focuses: space and usage, student experience, and financial modeling. Each subcommittee is charged with specific facets of PUBPR’s initiative.”

“For example, the space and usage subcommittee would be entrusted with gathering and analyzing data from dining halls while the student experience subcommittee is more closely involved with the undergraduate members of the committee and centers more on student feedback,” he said.

According to Avens, one reason for the committee's formation is that the University “hasn’t had a careful look at its dining and meal plan options” since 2005, when a University-wide committee chaired by faculty and staff reviewed dining options on campus as a part of the planning for the 2007 expansion of residential colleges.

Avens said that now, twelve years later, “history requires” PUBPR to do a similar sort of in-depth review in search of ways to enhance the student experience, just as the 2005 committee's report led to the creation of two free meals per week for upperclassmen.

Haneef said that another inspiration for PUBPR is to support a “diverse living, learning community” and added that the committee plans to create dining options that reflect the cultural diversity of the student body, though they have not yet formed any menu programs.

Avens said that the purpose of PUBPR is to find out how effective the University's current meal dining plan options are for the choices students are making.

He noted that the committee is “equally interested in learning about other ways in which me might enhance the flexibility of dining option.”

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Haneef characterized the committee as “a broader effort to develop choices that best suit a diverse group of students to support campus life goals" to think about "how to come together as a community and break bread together.” She said that PUBPR seeks to support a “diverse living, learning community,” and though she asserted that the committee has not yet created any menu programs, they eventually plan to provide dining options that reflect the cultural diversity of the student body.

Several students offered their opinions on the University's current and prospective dining plan.

Chisom Chigozie-Nwosu ‘20 supported the initiative, saying that it is good that the University is collecting data on what students think of the food that they’re having to eat every day.

"I think that because our school is international and people come from all over and are very accustomed to certain types of food, it would probably be in the University’s best interest to make sure that the dining options are catered to not just one specific taste, and that we offer a variety of different foods." Chigozie-Nwosu added, "I think a good way to execute this would be to create a list all the different places students are from and then maybe pick one simple dish from each of those countries and then try and rotate through them throughout the year . . . even though it’s not necessarily in your dining hall, knowing that there is the option to go somewhere else and eat food from your country is probably a good way to implement that.”

“I’m a student at Whitman, junior year. So right now I’m on the block 95 plan, I’m not a part of an eating club, so I have to get some meals at Whitman every week," saidJonathan Stewart ‘18. "That’s something that I particularly don’t like. I wish there was a little more flexibility in being able to go independent at a residential college. I mean, obviously that’s something I’ve signed up for, but I’ve noticed that there’s really no way to avoid it once you choose to go into a residential college, you kind of have to. As for Whitman, Whitman always seems crowded, it seems like there could be a lot more space. No matter when you go, it seems pretty crowded. But overall, I mean, I just think the flexibility in dining plans for those upperclassmen living in the residential college system, could be perhaps a little more flexible.”

There will be open focus groups Monday, Oct. 17, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Rockefeller College Private Dining Room, and Friday, Oct. 21, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Campus Club. There will also be focus groups for sophomores, seniors, and independent and co-op students, the times and places of which will be announced on the PUBPR website. An RSVP sign-up will be sent via the residential colleges, and dinner will be provided.