On Campus Dining: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

To begin this report about dining options on campus, let us evaluate what we know. We know that when considering the most important aspects of building a university community, campus food cannot be far from thought.

This is in part because students, especially those that live on campus and thus make up the largest component of the meal-plan holding population, are young. We know that the typical young person values good food options at reasonable prices and at just about any hour.

We also know that even non-traditional students, commuter students and any other student considers dining an important commodity. Really, considering the basic life requirement that food represents, we know that few, if any, consider food a trivial concern.

Recently, we have also begun to find that a number of Cleveland State University students have less than favorable opinions about the dining options available to them. As part of this report, The Cauldron wanted to find out what CSU students really think of dining. Naturally, we asked.

"Sometimes they try to do too much with the food and give it less appeal to the diverse crowds," says Ross Verheul, a Fenn Tower resident. "There is [also] no real food available in between meal times, maybe just a burger or some pizza."

Jessica Jones, a Viking Hall resident has similar sentiments, adding, "I think the dining on campus is not universal. I understand that we have different locations, but we need to have universal appeal. It makes it hard to spend a $1,000 a semester on a dining meal plan."

Verheul and Jones provide an interesting on-campus perspective, but what about the 14,000 people living somewhere else.

"It's exciting for the first week, but gets old very quick," says Josh Malek, a commuter. "Not much variety. [The campus] needs more health foods, more whole grains. The [current] health foods aren't that good-aren't even that healthy."

Quinton Banks, another commuter student relying on campus food several times each week adds, "Its pretty good, but not enough variety of food. Mix it up every once in a while, just get some newer options."

Others have stronger words.

"Hire employees that actually care about their job. It would be nice to have people who actually care about food," says Chris Dolton, a Viking Hall resident.

"Desserts, they suck. Pop machines don't work all the time…I got a couple dirty cups here once in a while," adds Kendall Riley, also a resident of Viking Hall.

Brent Bergman, an off-campus resident, shares the angriest sentiments, "[Viking] tastes like a rotting whale fetus that has been sitting in the sun for several days. Other than that, it's okay. Get a new company."

Now, to be fair, not everything said about the food on campus was terrible. Some diners consider it to be acceptable, better than where they were before or even above average.

"I love the prepared food that they make for you [at Viking]-it has gotten better recently," says James Hrivnak, a campus resident. "I love Fenn Shoppe, but ran out of dining dollars."

Jackson Donatello, an off-campus resident, says, "They're good. I like them. I like to eat here [Viking] because of the buffet type thing."

"Its decent, not healthy, but decent," says Joe Lauria, a Viking Hall resident. "Better than nothing, I guess."

Leanne Kocian, employed by the Human Resources department and an occasional diner at Viking Hall adds, "I wish there were more vegetarian options, but I like to come here because I like the salad bar. I appreciate the options that we have, but there should be more."

"I like it," says Brendon Falcone, a Viking Hall resident. "It's convenient. The food gets better every semester. I don't really care for the salad bar, but everything else is great."

Examination of this array of opinions reveals several trends. First, a large segment of the dining population has serious dissatisfaction with dining services. Food is not readily available, broadly appealing or exciting. The healthy options-known as balanced choices at Viking Hall-are less than hoped for and, according to Dolton, "sit out all day."

Diners also cite the dining staff, facility amenities and cleanliness and the price of food as a problem. Those who consider the positive side of dining fail to do so with excitement. Simply, the people who express concerns with dining services lament their cause. Those who express support do so plainly. They do not seem to care.

Now that we have properly examined the student opinions of campus dining, it is only appropriate that we consider the perspective of the people providing those services to campus. The Cauldron spoke with Jim Razzante, the director of CSU dining services, to complete this report.

"[Dining is] very important-especially in the residential dining area. That's where students hang out and relax," says Razzante. "What we provide them there is more than just food, it's the experience and the ambiance."

In the last several years, the dining brain trust at Cleveland State has been working diligently to make accommodations on a campus that is flush with construction projects-the Student Center construction having taken away a big chunk of their venues.

"We put in the Fenn sub shop to replace the subway," says Razzante. "We also decided to increase the grab-and-go options because that's what students are drawn to."

The new Student Center will provide students with many of the dining options they desperately desire. Personal pizzas and calzones will be cooked in a brick oven right before your eyes. A Mongolian-style grill will provide students the choice of exactly what goes into their meal and food in general will be catered to each person.

"Cooking options will be more individualized," says Razzante. "We will have individualized cooking stations in the new dining hall."