PUDS extends menus, hours

Extended hours in the residential colleges, more varied menus and price changes at Frist Campus Center are some of the numerous changes Dining Services is introducing this fall.

Ideas for improvement came from annual surveys and meetings with students, including focus groups with USG representatives.

At the urging of students, particularly athletes, Forbes and Wilson dining halls will remain open until 8 p.m.

In Frist, performing groups will be able to use the downstairs Gallery from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m, Frist's hours of minimal traffic. To make this possible, hot food will be moved upstairs to Café Vivian during these hours.

A new grab-and-go station in the Gallery features lower-priced sandwiches and healthy eating lab salads to address student complaints about traffic flow at the deli and salad stations.

Frist now offers salads in Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. varieties. The three varieties differ in price based on the number of included add-in ingredients.

Because the Masters salad costs more than the lunch late meal allowance and the Ph.D. costs more than the dinner allowance, Dining Services created late-meal "specials" so students can purchase a salad with one late meal.

"The student representatives made it clear that certain items should be kept as meal options, even if they are priced over the late meal allowance. Specials in Late Show for lunch and dinner enable the salad options to remain as they were last year, so you can get a $5.95 Ph.D. salad for a $4.75 swipe with a 16-ounce fountain soda," Director of Dining Services Stu Orefice said.

Student response

Before students heard about the late meal specials, many were up in arms about the price increases.

"At first I was livid — ready to seriously protest something that affected the everyday lives of '08 — but now I can rest easy knowing that with late meal prices unaffected, the price structure transition is as smooth as the balsamic dressing," Class of 2008 president Grant Gittlin said.

Prices of one-third of the items on the Frist menu have increased because of rising energy costs. "We review prices on an annual basis, looking at the market, and food prices have increased dramatically with fuel price increases. We all bear the costs of transport," Orefice said.

In response to student concerns regarding the variety of food, Frist will begin serving Nuevo Latino foods, including tacos, quesadillas and fajitas, in December.

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Residential colleges will spice up their offerings with Wednesday night Chef Night, in which the chefs create menus reflecting students' desires. The offerings will not be standard among the colleges. In addition, there will now be Theme Night Fridays, at the suggestion of Will Benjamin '07, a member of last year's USG who organized food focus groups.

"Menus in the colleges cycle and after the second repetition, students begin to get bored," Orefice said.

Fliers boast other improvements to dining hall food, including using Animal Care Certified eggs, frying in trans fat-free oil and clearly labeling vegetarian and vegan options with green-handled serving ware and color-coded menu tags.

"Dining Services has a longterm plan of redoing the dining halls in a cool new setup and the goal was to improve them as much as possible in the interim," Benjamin said.

Despite efforts to improve meal services, Orefice said Dining Services has its limitations.

"We serve 13,000 meals a day and can't please everyone," Orefice said. "It's a work in progress, and like a new pair of shoes, it takes a while for people to find a comfort level."