Connoisseurs of dining hall cuisine will get to air their compliments, complaints and suggestions next month when University Dining Services holds focus groups for students Dec. 6 and 8.
U-Councilor Will Benjamin '07 worked with Dining Services Director Stu Orefice to initiate the focus groups, which will bring students together with chefs and administrators from Dining Services.
"I saw that students were frustrated by some aspects of dining here at Princeton and at the same time didn't appreciate Dining Services as much as they could," Benjamin said. "We're hoping [that these focus groups] will bring together people providing a valuable service with the people using that service to help both sides be more satisfied."
Orefice said he and other members of Dining Services are looking forward to the focus groups.
"We like to listen to our students," he said.
But this is not the first time they have soliciated student responses.
Dining Services has done student evaluations on an annual basis for the past ten years, Orefice said, yielding many valuable suggestions and improvements. In 1994, students' suggestions led to late meals being extended through lunch on Fridays to accommodate the growing number of Friday classes.
Orefice said he hopes this year's focus groups will help Dining Services make important upcoming decisions, such as choosing menu items for the spring semester.
"So far, the suggestions we've gotten [through avenues such as Dining Services' online suggestion box] have included more vegan desserts, low-fat entrées, healthier options and more grill items," Orefice said. "We'll be interested to see whether [the feedback we get in] the focus groups matches those suggestions."
Benjamin said he will have some suggestions of his own during the focus groups.
"Students love special dinners," he said, "so I've suggested that we do mini special dinners at a different residential college each week, which would be available for two swipes [of a PUID card]."
Benjamin said he is also going to suggest that each college develop a specialty meal.
"We could have Friday fajita nights at Mathey, Tuesday omelets at Forbes and so on," he said. "That would lend a further sense of identity to each college and would make it more fun as well — it [would make] it more like restaurants."
Benjamin said he also wants to emphasize how hard Dining Services is already working to meet students' needs.
"They have a sophisticated way of evaluating students' preferences," he said. "They have a computerized [device] that rates the popularity of entrées based on how many leftovers there are."
Orefice said students have signed up for half of the 36 slots available so far.
Students can sign up for the meetings by emailing Dining Services at ds@princeton.edu.
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