Requests from students include:
- Private dining spaces
- Meeting rooms
- Electrical outlets
- Healthy options
- Multicultural options
- Chain restaurant
- Later hours
The Student Government Association’s president-elect has gone straight to the students to ask what they want to see in a new dining hall replacing those in LaFollette Complex.
With the upcoming demolition of residence halls and their dining,
Greg Carbó said the research firm BakerGroup asked him and the rest of SGA to gather student opinions.
To do so, he consulted social media.
“They’re the first SGA to [ask for opinions] so publicly on Facebook," Sarah Pruitt, a junior biochemistry major said. "Previous ones take student input into account, but I never see them actually asking. I’m very confident that [administration] will take student input into account.”
Responses so far indicate some students are looking for more than just food in new dining.
“Having an area that can serve multiple purposes would be good,” Pruitt said. “You can also use it to have large meetings, friends or organizations get together.”
Other students agree with Pruitt’s idea of more meeting spaces.
“I’m always looking for a place that I can have lunch with somebody but also have a meeting or maybe talk about something that’s important or maybe something that’s private,” said Trevor Holland, an SGA senator.
Holland also mentioned that private, friendly spaces in dining could benefit newer students.
“I think as a first-year student when you’re still getting acclimated, you’re still learning and you don’t have a leadership position in an
Cameron Owens, a junior criminal justice major, meets almost every day to have lunch with his fraternity brothers in the dining halls. He said he wishes technology could be a more integral part of the structures in which dining is housed.
“I just think with the way technology is going and the way we all are so dependent on power, having open [electrical] outlets all over the place would be really helpful to most everybody,” Owens said.
Owens also favors the idea of a chain restaurant being incorporated into a new dining hall, much like how Taco Bell is available in the Tally and Chick-Fil-A, Boar’s Head and Papa John’s are in the Atrium.
Holland would like to see a chain such as
However, students called for healthy options that go beyond the salad bar in other responses to Carbó’s Facebook post.
Carbó said he personally would like to see multicultural food choices that take into account what international students might like.
Although SGA is collecting student feedback now, specific developments will not be planned for some time.
“When it comes down to it, it’s going to be the administration that chooses what goes on with it,” Carbó said. “[SGA] is just doing its best to represent and let them know what the student body is asking for.”
Carbó said he compiled the responses, sent them to BakerGroup and is currently waiting on a reply.
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