Colleges seek new dining meal plan strategies

The words "dining hall" may bring to mind images of stacked plastic trays and large vats of mysterious casseroles. But with college students across the country plunking down a collective $9 billion each year -- roughly as much as Americans will spend eating out in restaurants -- campus dining is no small potatoes. What's more, it's an industry that's lately been forced to scramble for students' business -- over the last three years, the number of meals colleges serve has dropped 25 percent, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. Students at Penn seem to have followed the national trend -- between fall 2000 and 2001, 1,500 fewer students signed up for meal plans, despite a new policy requiring all incoming freshmen to purchase plans. In response, Penn's dining services have begun to adapt to the shift in demand. The number of required meals per week for freshman has since dropped from 17 to 9, and the number of flexible "dining dollars" has increased for each plan. And after Stouffer Dining Hall closed in summer 2001 and food management company Aramark replaced Bon Appetit to head dining services one year later, retail venues that accept dining dollars, including Subway and Au Bon Pain, have popped up around campus. At Penn and other schools, some students -- deciding that all-you-can-eat plans are not economical -- have found that off-campus options are often cheaper and tastier. "I can get better take-out for less," Columbia University junior Emilie Rovito said of her campus dining options, noting that she hasn't purchased a meal plan since her freshman year. With more and more students looking to off-campus eateries, schools have worked to find different ways of sustaining campus dining services. Some universities sidestep the problem by requiring all undergraduates living on campus to purchase a meal plan. Currently at Penn, only freshmen are required to purchase meal plans. At Harvard University, there are no meal plan options to choose from -- all on-campus undergraduates are enrolled in an unlimited meal plan with as many meals as they would like each week for a set price. "It is integral to Harvard's approach to education," Harvard University Dining Services Director for Marketing and Communications Alexandra McNitt said. "They really see house life, of which dining services is a complement, as an integral part of the learning community." However, many other schools have taken a different approach, instead catering to students' desire for flexibility by adding "flex plans" with fewer set meals each week and more "dining dollars" to be spent at eating establishments. Duke University inaugurated its "Merchants on Point" program in 1990, making it one of the first universities to allow students to order food from 15 local restaurants and pay using a dining points system. Through an arrangement with Duke, the university takes an 18 percent commission on meals purchased through the program. Duke does not limit the number of merchants who can participate, allowing students to order from Papa John's or Domino's if they so choose. "I think the biggest thing about Duke is that there are lots of options for eating," Duke freshman Andrea Crosby said, adding that the points system allows for greater variety. "It makes it so that you don't have to have a meal all the time, and you have the option of just having snacks," Crosby said. "We can order from all kinds of places around Durham using our points, so there's a steakhouse we can order from on food points. Granted, it costs a lot of food points, but it's still amazing that you can get a steak on your dining plan." At many universities, these programs have proved popular. "I think the food quality at the 'dining dollars' places is pretty decent," Rovito said of Columbia's meal plan. "It's not all that cheap, per se, but it is convenient and reasonably priced. The dining hall leaves a lot more to be desired." However, many universities are making efforts to fill that void by redesigning dining halls, bringing in new chefs and organizing special events to entice diners. "We try to eliminate [the] monotony by doing various events," Yale University Dining Services Manager of Marketing and Communications Janet D'Agostino said. Events include several theme nights each semester and a program in which dining halls serve up students' favorite meals based on suggestions sent in by their parents. For many, the location of the school and residential accommodations play a major role in the way dining plans are structured. At universities such as Penn, where students have easy access to kitchens and grocery stores, the dining hall is naturally less of a necessity for students. "We definitely have to take a look at what our competition has to offer and take that into consideration," said Maeve Duska, the marketing manager for Dining Services at Penn. "Obviously, there's going to be a different mentality on a more urban campus than a more suburban [one]. The students are usually looking for something a little different from their dining program." Campus Dining Services is currently in the process of compiling the results of a recent survey to determine what students want out of their meal plans.