The TCU Dining Services’ staff and administration said they have made many improvements to campus eateries, but some students say they want to see even more changes and additions to the dining options around campus.Rick Flores, director of Dining Services, said student traffic is the reason for the structuring of eateries throughout the campus.
“[Dining Services] is working very well in the Smith (Entrepreneurs Hall) with the Sub Connection because the unit is on the ground floor and students walking by know it is there,” Flores said. “Jazzman’s (CafÂ), in Tucker Technology (Center), which is on the lower level, doesn’t have any traffic, so it’s very hard to keep that unit alive in that location, because there isn’t enough student participation.”
Traffic has played such a big part in the structuring of dining services because they have learned that students won’t walk four minutes for food, Flores said.
“If it’s not right next to them, they aren’t going to go out of their way to get it,” Flores said.
Despite this fact, the Moudy Building is currently without a proximate dining option, but Flores said Dining Services has done all that they can there.
“We did make an effort about three years ago to try to put an operation into Moudy, but it wasn’t received or welcome,” Flores said. “There were some faculty members there that thought it would be a disturbance to the classroom environment. We weren’t accepted there, so we never went back.”
Sophomore nursing major Maud Mensa said she also thinks the dining options are limited and that the administration should increase the dining budget.
“They need to make some sort of expansion,” Mensa said. “Instead of spending all that money on new buildings, I think they might want to spend some money on other restaurants or open up something new.”
Over the last couple of years, Edens and Deco Deli in Reed Hall have experienced success, Flores said, but the most popular recent improvement has been the upgrade and format change of Pond St. Grill in Worth Hills into an express restaurant.
“So now we have an impact on the East Campus, the academic side,” Flores said. “We have the heart of the campus taken care of with The Main, Edens and Frog Bytes. On the southwest side, that new format for Pond St. Grill has really helped out for taking care of the folks that live out in the Worth Hills area.”
Despite the improvements, students, such as sophomore biology major Taran Eckenrode, say they want to see more food options and better costs.
“They should update the cafeterias because it’s the same stuff all the time and it’s overpriced,” Eckenrode said. “I would like to see more dining options throughout campus because it’s just sandwiches everywhere, pretty much.”
Freshman radio-TV-film major Stephanie Ernst said she likes the dining options on campus.
“I like that there are different places with different kinds of food instead of just a cafeteria,” Ernst said.
