Advised by CDRC, ACDC effects changes to improve student dining

Anyone who has visited the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) since the beginning of the semester has undoubtedly noticed that it is operating differently from last semester. In fact, the cafeteria now boasts several self-service stations, accurate nutritional information cards and a piece-by-piece servery layout in an effort to improve its food, organization and atmosphere. Many of these changes are due to the ongoing work of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Campus Dining Review Committee (CDRC), which has, in conjunction with the administration, collected student input and made recommendations to ARAMARK Food Services with regards to dining at Vassar.

One of the most prominent changes that was implemented during the winter recess is the incorporation of self-service into nearly every station at ACDC. VSA Vice President for Student Life Charlie Dobb '12, who is also the co-chair of the CDRC, hopes that this will free up ACDC employees and, by extension, improve cafeteria cleanliness and overall food quality.

Many of the stations at ACDC have also been dismantled to increase a student's ability to customize his or her meal and shorten lines. The sandwich station, for example, has been completely broken up. Now, students who just want plain deli meat don't have to wait in a sandwich preparation line, but can just grab it next to the salad bar. Hot vegetables have also been separated from the main entrée so that students can pick the specific components that they want in their meal. "One of the ideas that came out of the [CDRC research] is thinking about the Deece more explicitly as a food pyramid. So students can easily say that this is where I'll get my vegetable, and this is where I'll get my starch and this is where I'll get a protein, and sort of building a meal in that way," said Dobb.

Hilary Mauro '14 was particularly impressed by the ACDC's new system, explaining, "I've heard good things about the pizza and I've wanted to try it, but every time I go into the Deece I'm always distracted by the other good options." And she wasn't the only one. On the side of each napkin dispenser in the two dining areas, there is a Quick Response Code that will direct students to an online survey through their smartphones. This survey is meant to determine how effective these changes are at improving student satisfaction. Although a similar survey was never administered last semester before the changes were implemented (so a comparison between last semester and this semester is difficult to make) some information can still be gleaned from them.

Out of 82 respondents so far, about 75 percent felt some degree of satisfaction for the ACDC experience on the day they took the survey, with about 27 percent reporting extreme satisfaction and 7.3 percent reporting extreme dissatisfaction. About 75 percent of respondents also had some degree of satisfaction with the food specifically, with 19.5 percent reporting extreme satisfaction and 8.5 percent reporting extreme dissatisfaction. When answering these survey questions, roughly 67 percent of respondents were rating their dinners.

Not only have the changes to ACDC been well received by the student body, but they have also come at little cost. Despite the fact that each station is now self-service, no ACDC employees were let go as a result of the change. According to Senior Director of Campus Dining and ARAMARK representative Maureen King, all former servers have simply been given new duties. King added that student meal plans will not become more expensive as a direct result of the changes because they were all contained within ACDC's usual budget.

Many of the changes were motivated by the information that the CDRC collected last semester through an extensive outreach program. The committee hosted an informal dinner at ACDC, organized "Food for Thought, Thought for Food" meetings in each dorm, and arranged a town-hall-style meeting in the UpC Café. The latter three events only had a modest turnout, but were used to build a general framework for what would ultimately become one of the committee's most useful initiatives: the focus groups.

Each focus group comprised about 10 to 15 students. There was one composed of athletes; one composed of students with special dietary interests; one group of students with special economic, social, or environmental interests; one group of faculty; and two randomly selected control groups. "The charge of the students on [the CDRC] is not to represent every student on campus, because they can't, but to think creatively about how to get every student's voice that wants to be heard heard," said Dobb in September, adding that, although it's impossible to get 2400 students in focus groups, they can certainly produce a helpful approximation.

According to the CDRC document titled "Focus Groups: Executive Summary," the committee was able to gauge a variety of student opinions about the food, the atmosphere and the accuracy of the nutritional information cards. "It's more about the nutrition than the amount of food. It's not empty calories, we need something of substance," commented one focus group member. "Everything looks tired. The building looks tired. The food is tired. The staff is tired," added another.

According to the summary, many students also put a significant emphasis on simplicity. "I think if there were more plain options, I'd feel more satisfied. I know that if they have pasta or rice, it's with some weird sauce. I know the times when they have plain rice and pasta, it's amazing. I just love it," one student said.

Although the changes have addressed several of the issues raised during the focus group research, some problems remain. Congestion, for example, still plagues the dining center between 6 and 7 p.m., although the CDRC has been working on a solution. According to Dobb, the committee is currently considering the possibility of an ice cream bar with limited availability, or V-Cash related benefits for students who come to ACDC during off-peak hours.

Several members of the CDRC and Campus Life Committee also went on a short trip to Mount Holyoke College, Middlebury College and Bryn Mawr College to assess how comparably sized schools manage their dining systems. Jewett President and CDRC member Clayton Masterman '13 attended this trip and found it very informative. "We went to go get a sense of what their dining looked like since....their dining ratings were really good compared to ours," explained Masterman, adding, "A lot of food at those colleges was self-service, and that was a big thing that we took back to the CDRC. We saw that other colleges had more than one dining hall, and options were less numerous but were better prepared. A lot of the same things that Vassar students said that they would want when we conducted the focus groups."

Despite Vassar's 23-year-long history with ARAMARK, and an apparently rising ACDC satisfaction rating, members of the CDRC are still cautious about renewing the College's contract with ARAMARK for several more years. Although the current contract is not set to expire until the end of the 2012-2013 academic year, Dobb and the CDRC have devised a tentative plan. "My personal idea, and I am pretty confident that this will happen, is that there will be a sort of probational renewal of the contract. A shorter term renewal. Maybe a year or two. If they can't drive up satisfaction, that'll also give us a few years to look at other providers," said Dobb.

After several years of a notoriously low opinion of ACDC, it appears as though Vassar has begun taking steps in a positive direction. The CDRC hopes to send out a campus survey in mid-February to determine exactly how much progress was made, and what issues the group still needs to face. "I'm really happy to see the changes that are happening out there now," concluded Dobb.