Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: Housing Guide

Mark Hudson said the number one goal of the housing and dining program is to meet the students' needs.

Hudson, the director of housing and dining services, said the university sends out residence hall satisfaction surveys to about one-third of students to get their opinion on their housing and dining experience.

"They (students) tell us that they want more variety and more options," Hudson said about dining.

To accommodate the different tastes and wants of students when it comes to food, the residence halls were set up to serve different items than the rest.

"They did not have these (different items) years ago when every hall served about the same things," said Jody Horn, director of university dining. "Our students want lots of different things, and they seem to like to make their meals more to order."

Some of the specialty items at each residence hall include a Tyson Sunset Strips chicken concept and made to order skillets at Taylor Hall, made-to-order pasta and pizza as well as Panini sandwiches at Thomas Hall, stir fry and grilled cheese Wednesdays at Carman Hall, and made-to-order omelets and deli sandwiches at Stevenson Hall's Tower Dining.

Hudson said, according to the satisfaction surveys, students' favorite item is Thomas Hall's Panini sandwiches.

Thomas Hall also has late night pizza from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and Tower Dining has Reservation Only Dining from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

"We choose to do something (different) at each dining center since we don't have a big dining center in which we can do everything," Horn said. "Our campus is small geographically and most centers are within a block or two of each other so this works out well for our campus."

Hudson said having different items at each center allows students to have a different food experience as well as physical experience because of the different location.

"Students are creatures of habit," he said. "We do lots of different things to make sure students are well served."

Healthy food options are one of the things Hudson said they make sure the dining halls have.

Hudson said Horn, who is a registered dietician, works with a dedicated staff to make sure what is served is nutritious.

He said healthy eating is one of the advantages of utilizing the on-campus dining options; the others are convenience and variety.

Part of the convenience of the dining halls is the option of sack meals, sick trays and carry out.

Hudson said the sack meals and sick trays used to be a bigger deal before the carry out service was implemented about eight years ago.

The sack meals and sick trays are prepared for students who may not be able to get to the dining center for reasons such as school related conflicts, illness or injury.

Besides the surveys, housing and dining also gets student feedback from comment cards, e-mails and student forums that are held every so often to meet with students face to face.

They also have secret shoppers who go to each residence hall and provide comments and suggestions based on their own experiences.

"We have a really good student population here at EIU who let's us know what they like and what they don't like," Horn said. "They are the reason we are here so we want to hear what they have to say and try and do what keeps them happy and coming to our dining facilities."


Kristina Peters can be reached at 581-7942 or deneic@gmail.com.

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