Capital projects continue amid perennial issues in college dining and rising challenges in the academic sector.

There are perennial issues in the college and university worlds of residential and retail dining. Keeping diners interested when they eat three meals a day, seven days a week at the same place represents an ongoing challenge. Keeping up with changing technology presents another issue. Labor problems and supply-chain snafus have become bigger headaches since COVID-19.

And then there are today’s new issues — There are also institutional budgeting problems, as various federal grants and state appropriations become questionable. Capital expenditure planning must take into account not only today’s entering class of college freshmen — the high school graduating class of 2025 that is touted as the largest in history — but also a future that may be very different.

“It’s called the enrollment cliff,” says Sojo Alex, executive principal at Envision Strategies, a consulting firm that specializes in foodservice strategic planning and operations consulting. The enrollment cliff refers to a predicted decline in the number of college-bound students in some states, she explains, due to a drop in birth rates and a decline among high schoolers opting for traditional four-year institutions.

Universities are reacting to these new realities differently depending on their goals. “There’s a lot of political complexity at play,” Alex says. “Federal funding shifts and broader economic realities are impacting large universities, while some smaller colleges are facing mergers or closures. Resources are being allocated in ways that affect programs across the board, and dining is just one piece of that puzzle. Most dining programs have their own financial reserves, so it’s still early to determine how much of this disruption will ultimately trickle down.” Campus-wide hiring freezes may also have implications for dining services staffing, she notes.

Capital improvement projects for new or upgraded dining halls already underway are continuing as planned, Alex says. However, for projects still in the planning phase, the situation is more nuanced: “You have to consider the optics. Launching a major dining project immediately after a university reports a loss may send the wrong message.”

While belt-tightening will be the order of the day for some universities, others may step up their emphasis on residential dining as part of their student recruitment and retention efforts, Alex says. 

For students, dining priorities are changing in subtle but meaningful ways. “Previously, the emphasis was on health and well-being,” Alex explains. “While those values remain important, today’s students are placing greater focus on convenience and affordability. At the same time, there is a growing recognition that dining spaces should foster a sense of belonging.”

Let’s take a look at examples of how colleges are working to implement these latest mandates.

A former power plant at Beloit College now houses the industrial-chic Hamiltons Café. Photo courtesy of Beloit College/Bon Appétit Management

Updating to Meet New Needs

Beloit College in Wisconsin is a small liberal-arts institution with a population of around 1,000 students, 90% of whom live on campus. Over the past year and a half, the Beloit campus has undergone a significant transformation with the creation of a student-centered environment that fosters interactions in and out of the classroom. The college is revitalizing dining services with renovated kitchens and reconfigured eating areas.

The Powerhouse — literally a defunct electrical power plant, transformed by architect Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang to serve as a student union, athletic center and meeting and conference space — houses Hamiltons Café, which became the all-you-care-to-eat residential dining hall after significant renovations were undertaken by the college with help from its foodservice contract management company Bon Appétit and Boelter, a Wisconsin-based foodservice equipment dealer that offers design services. 

Hamiltons was updated from a standard cafeteria to an assortment of stations that offer a wide range of ethnic fare and cater to special diets. Photo courtesy of Beloit College/Bon Appétit Management“Our old dining options, the previous version of Hamiltons Café in the Powerhouse and DK’s in the old Commons building, were set up for standard cafeteria food,” explains Nate Osterberger,  director of facilities at Beloit College. “The last renovations were in the 1990s, when dietary restrictions weren’t front of mind and nobody was concerned about menu variety. We wanted to make sure we were using the right equipment to create a space where the team wouldn’t feel handicapped in accommodating all diners’ preferences and choices — and to see how many exotic things the kitchen could produce.”

The design goal was to improve overall quality and create efficiencies, says Scott Zoellick, Bon Appétit’s general manager at Beloit College. “We took a look at what equipment could be brought to the new facility; we were able to keep a grill, a charbroiler and a big stock pot. From there, we decided what would fit the space, create efficiencies and shine through in our food and customer appeal.”

The biggest purchases, Zoellick says, were two high-end combi ovens: “They’re state-of-the-art, able to do everything from convection baking to steaming to sous vide, and fun for the team to be creative and play around with.” The combis, together with two new tilt skillets, “allow us to do volume production and hold food hot,” Zoellick says. “Now we have equipment to create great quality food at high volume, more consistently, more efficiently and in a way that’s easier on the team.”

The Hamiltons kitchen configuration is now more logical, Osterberger says: “The size and placement of equipment have been reconfigured so that now we don’t have everybody stepping all over each other.” For instance, he notes, in the previous configuration, “the dish room didn’t have ‘dirty’ and ‘clean sides’ — dirty plates came in, clean plates came out, but there was no logical flow. Now, the trays come into the dish room, and clean plates come out via a defined path.” 

The Powerhouse also includes a fourth-floor event space with a catering kitchen where “we did a dual-purpose renovation,” Zoellick explains. “We created an area for plate finishing, which we didn’t have before. And we moved our bakery operations there, bringing over a great oven from our old location. In the old space, it was tough to manage a big catering event while feeding a normal student population. Now, with the finishing area and oven space, we have the ability.”

Along with the Powerhouse renovations, the college updated its retail grab-and-go cafe, DK’s, on the other side of campus. “We were able to utilize a lot of existing equipment but upgraded the hood ventilation system as well as the cooking and holding stations out front,” Zoellick says. “We were able to create a coffee bar area that has become incredibly popular; we do coffees, espresso, smoothies, bakery items and grab-and-go meals.”

The dining renovations are just one aspect of a sweeping campus transformation designed to boost student satisfaction, enrollment and community engagement. Other upgrades include a $10 million library renovation and the creation of an Impact Beloit hub that unifies career readiness and community-based learning programs.

“Students are at the center of everything we do,” says Dan Schooff, who was the vice president for facilities and advancement at Beloit College at the time of the remodel was conceived and has since retired. “This transformation elevates the student experience and positions Beloit College as a place of pride and attraction for future generations of students and their families, alumni from all generations and our neighbors in the Greater Beloit area.”

How Students See College Dining Today

• 87% of students view on-campus dining as the number one way to connect, build community and enhance their overall college experience.

• 79% of students typically purchase lunch on campus (41% at a dining hall, 38% at a retail cafe).

• 54% say the primary function of campus dining halls is to be a place to eat and socialize with friends.

Source: Sodexo 2024-2025 Student Lifestyle Survey

Promoting a Sense of Belonging

As the Beloit College example shows, contract management firms that partner with colleges on foodservice offerings are often deeply involved not only in capital improvements but also in the execution of the latest trends. 

Chartwells Higher Ed, a division of Compass Group USA, works with college administrations, dining services departments and students to promote inclusion in a wide variety of ways for different college cultures. For instance:

At Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., dining services executive chefs collaborated with two sophomores to spark their dream to create a health-conscious, fast-casual Indian restaurant: a Desi Eats pop-up eatery to celebrate World Food Day and promote East Indian culture. A provided QR code allowed students to complete a post-meal survey on their impressions and preferences.

At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the Chartwells-operated dining services department transformed an unused space into a Cantina concession for the Vaqueros’ varsity game nights. Each meal has a different theme and menu; for instance, “Selena-rita” cocktails were offered on an evening dedicated to the beloved Rio Grande Valley singer.

Chartwells and its dining services partner helped boost a University of Chicago initiative to support farmers who are members of minority groups, including hosting farmers’ markets and on-campus events featuring produce from Chicago Urban Farm Solutions. 

Similarly, Aramark and its partners in college dining services slant their offerings and promotions to the student body of each campus. For example, several times a year at North Carolina Central University, a historically Black college in Durham, Black chefs, farmers and fishermen participate in dining services’ Guest Chef Expos. At a recent event, John Mallette, owner of North Carolina-based Southern Breeze Seafood, talked about local seafood and demonstrated how to clean and cut a fresh tuna. At a “dining hall takeover” the next day, he helped serve shrimp po’boys and shrimp Creole.

At Towson University in Towson, Md., Tiger Hospitality sponsors a periodic Cupcakes for Comments event in both residential dining halls and retail venues, offering students a free cupcake or other dessert from a local vendor in exchange for their critique. At another periodic event, Dine with the Director, students share a catered meal with one of the dining services directors and offer their comments on what they’d like and what they’d like to see.

Sodexo’s higher education division has created several versions of its residential dining offerings for all sorts of colleges and universities, small and large. The “One & All” program serves as the contract feeder’s “foundational concept,” says Rob Morasco, CEC, vice president of innovation for Sodexo Campus: “It fits any account, from small to extra large, and is adaptable from an equipment standpoint.”

The updated diner experience begins at the food hall’s welcome area. “Somebody checks the students’ swipe cards, a sign tells them what’s going on today and there’s a little sweet or salty treat they can grab,” Morasco explains. Each dining hall is set up with what Morasco calls “a clubhouse feel,” offering a variety of seating areas to accommodate solo diners, groups of two or three or large gatherings.

One feature of the concept that meshes well with Generation Z’s preference for customization is the All-Day Dinette, which lets students prepare their own food to their exact specifications, even beyond regular meal hours. “It’s a rotating menu,” Morasco says. “We set up the stations with all the ingredients for a chicken sandwich or pasta or a stir-fry. We may put out frozen fruit and pitchers of juices so students could make their own smoothies.”

These make-your-own-meal kitchens are simple, Morasco explains, with a bank of self-ventilating induction ranges, cold wells for refrigerated ingredients, a shared pantry and recipe instructions for several dishes appropriate for different dayparts, including pancakes, stir-fries, pasta and chicken dishes. Five or six team members can work in the kitchen, which is staffed by an attendant to restock ingredients, clean sauté pans and supervise traffic. 

At Framingham State University in Massachusetts, the room was set up as a space for allergen-free cooking, with students lining up in front of a closed door to take their turn. At Providence College in Rhode Island, the area is airy and open, integrated with the larger dining hall.

The Big Orange Grill in the student union at the University of Tennessee Knoxville uses beef from the UT Beef program and coffee from a local coffee shop. Photo courtesy of Envision Strategies

Discovering the Latest Iterations of Food Halls

An even newer residential dining format for Sodexo is the premium Foodiverse Food & Drink Co., which has been implemented at the University of Cincinnati, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and Austin Peay University in Clarksville, Tenn. Foodiverse offers a food hall experience resembling an upscale European market, with themed food stalls, chef-staffed live-action stations and locally sourced ingredients. The concept focuses on plant-based foods and sustainability. In the washup utility area, waste food is diverted to composting and containers to recycling or reuse, extending sustainability focus beyond the plate. 

“Foodiverse is designed for the kitchen to be out front,” Morasco explains. “Some prep needs to be done in the back, but more is worked into the station as part of the culture trip — dicing vegetables, slicing lettuce, heating tortillas. The decentralization of the final cooking process promotes freshness.” Foodiverse front-of-house equipment includes a vertical rotating rotisserie that can be used for a variety of meats, from lamb or beef gyros to pork for made-to-order tacos al pastor. Pizza and other items are baked to crispness in compact gas or electric deck ovens. 

Another Sodexo variant on food halls, the upscale Footprint Foodhall, will debut at the University of Vermont next year. It’s built on the pillars of inclusivity (options for all diet preferences, equitable offerings, food rescue initiatives and community-focused practices); transparency (students will be able to check ingredient lists, nutrition information and local sourcing); and carbon-conscious dining (80% of menus will be plant-based, and 40% of the menu will feature locally sourced ingredients when seasonally available). 

The new Foodiverse food hall format from Sodexo is designed as a “culture trip,” resembling a European market hall with much of the food prep out front in view of patrons. Photo courtesy of Sodexo

Exploring Campus Convenience

Sodexo’s approach to campus retail foodservice is also changing. The Food Hive format, rolled out in early 2025, enhances offerings in college c-stores, including ready-to-eat meals that students can order ahead on their phones. The program is modular and scalable, from small spaces that focus on key essentials to large operations. For these, Sodexo is partnering with Amazon’s Just Walk Out initiative to offer hot and cold prepared foods, fresh produce, frozen foods, packaged goods and sundries in an unstaffed market. 

Food Hive’s ready-to-eat meals, from a corned beef Reuben sandwich to pizza, are cooked in small, ventless multimode speed ovens. Cooking and holding equipment are internet-enabled. 

“While students’ desire for quality hasn’t changed, there’s just an outrageous desire for convenience and portability today,” Morasco says. “These changes are addressing that.”