- It's Not Just Three Squares a Day

RELATED:
-An invitation to lunch

Other Features:
- COVER STORY: Destination: Discovery
- The Powers That Be
- A Broken Homeland

Another alternative to the dining halls are convenience stores in Nelson and Boyd halls that stay open as late as midnight. Students can buy prepared items such as hot wings or frozen foods they can cook in the fridge/microwave units provided in each of their residence hall rooms. For students who miss dinner hours, snack bars in the dining halls offer sandwiches, salads, desserts and other munchies.

Sophomore Jeff Liggett is a regular patron of Grab-and-Go and the convenience stores.

Students prepare their dinners at the wok bar in Jefferson Dining Hall.

“Grab-and-Go is great,” he says. “I get it the majority of the time. The Boyd Market is pretty sweet, too. I get a lot of frozen snacks like Hot Pockets and pizza rolls.”

Dining hall employees hear similar comments from other students about the added convenience. In an online survey of 650 students last year, the Food Service program received a 74 percent approval rating.

The survey also asked students to make suggestions. As a result, more than 500 changes have been implemented, Shelton says, including adding vegetarian chili to the menu and switching from sliced to chopped cucumbers on the salad bar.

The program’s creative use of the Internet earned its Web site (www.ohiou.edu/food/) recognition as the National Food Services Web Site of the Month last May from the National Association of College and University Food Services. The site features daily menus, nutritional information, employment opportunities, an explanation of meal plans and a list of individualized dining hall options.

“We expanded the site to be a real service-type Web site,” Shelton says. “If there is an issue, problem or whatever, we encourage our students to link to it and drop us a quick message.”

For many veteran Food Service employees, the idea of catering to students’ needs is refreshing.

“Things have changed very quickly,” says Larry Lambert, an assistant manager at Nelson Dining Hall who has worked on campus for 21 years. “It used to be based on what the cooks wanted to serve, but now it’s based on what students want. This way is much better.”

Students typically were limited to one serving each of meat, vegetables, bread, dessert and a beverage before the 1970s, when the all-you-can-eat approach became the norm.

Rayya Habeeb enjoys a breakfast prepared at Nelson Hall’s omelet bar.

“We didn’t have many fresh vegetables or fruits,” recalls Elsie Grebe, BBA ’68, of Cincinnati. “You had maybe two or three choices of a main dish and you got whatever else came with it on the plate. And you got only one glass of milk. Those of us who didn’t drink much gave the rest to the guys, especially the athletes. They always wanted more milk.”

Callie Schmidt, BSED ’60, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., enjoys eating in the dining halls when she returns to campus for various alumni events. She says today’s selections are easier to stomach than some of the entrees served during her days on campus.

“At one of the special dinner nights they served fish — the whole fish!” Schmidt recalls. “You were looking at the eyes, the fins, everything. Most of us girls just pushed our plates to the center of the table.”

Dining hall services continue to evolve to suit students’ tastes and even a few academic needs. Near the end of the school year, Nelson Dining Hall will be renovated into a mini-mall setup that will include Grab-and-Go service, a larger convenience store, a copy center and a video rental store.

Despite these new amenities, college wouldn’t be college if you didn’t hear a few complaints about the food. Some students, such as sophomore Karla Myers, maintain a practical outlook, though.

“In general, I don’t mind the dining hall food,” she says, “because it means that I don’t have to cook or do dishes.”

Katie Fitzgerald, BSJ ’03, is a student writer for Ohio Today. Landon Nordeman, MSVC ’02, is a graduate assistant in photography with Ohio University Media Services.

< BACK