Students took a highly critical stance toward the Saint Xavier diner in a recent Xavierite survey.
The survey, conducted last month, asked 100 SXU students to rate their overall diner experience on a scale of one to five, with five being excellent and one being poor. The final average was 2.91.
A central complaint involved pricing. Students strongly condemned the diner’s prices with 90 percent of those surveyed claiming that the costs of diner food are too high.
Stephanie Moye, Senior Director of Dining Services at Saint Xavier University, attributed the high prices to a number of factors including economic growth and the inflation rate.
She explained that environmental problems, such as droughts, are causing a shortage of feed crops across the nation. This shortage makes feeding livestock more expensive, which in turn raises the cost of meat.
With higher meat prices, consumer demand for egg and dairy products is increasing, which raises those foods’ prices as well.
On top of this are rising fuel prices, which raise transportation costs. As a result, explained Moye, prices are rising everywhere for everything, including diner food.
Austin Regan, a freshman computer science major remained skeptical saying “I work at outside [food] places and [prices] are way cheaper than here. Especially since we’re students, it really shouldn’t be this high.”
Linda Moreno, Director of Auxiliary Services, emphasized, “No increases [in diner food] are allowed without definite specific verifications of commodity pricing increases that not only affect our dining system, but also trickle down to family grocery bills.”
Thus, if there is a change in diner food pricing, it means overall prices in the economy are changing.
Moreno said that this, in addition to product, labor and operating costs determine prices.
She assured that the university does everything it can to keep prices low, but that it could never compete with prices in large corporations due to economies of scale.
Moye cited the additional cost of hiring and keeping diner employees as a determinant of diner prices.
“I think the employees deserve a raise every year. They work very hard,” she stated.
Despite these external factors, Moye promises to continue trying to “menu engineer” food servings to keep prices down, but admits that, to a large extent, it is out of her control.
A second major student concern regarded food variety. 76 percent of those surveyed wrote that the diner does not offer enough variety.
Specific criticisms students raised involved the number of healthy options available.
“We support our students in promoting good health and nutrition,” assured Moye.
As a result, she promises to incorporate nutritional labels into each of the diner’s menus by Fall 2013. The labels will list important nutritional information, including the number of calories within each food.
Moye’s ultimate goal is to create a booklet for students listing each food item in the diner, along with its complete nutritional information.
In the meantime, she plans to post nutritional information on select foods, such as daily specials.
Moye believes many students are uninformed about the diner’s healthy options and has launched a marketing campaign entitled “Taste your Way to Wellness” encouraging them to choose healthy foods.
Beginning this month, the campaign will include informational posters placed in food venues around the school as well as taste samples of healthy foods.
“This is an opportunity to allow our customers to experience a month-long tasting experience to see first hand how tasty eating well can be,” she explained.
Many students also called for more vegetarian and vegan options, options which Moye said already exist.
“We are extremely passionate about our Saint Xavier University students that are vegetarian or vegan,” said Moye.
She explained the diner’s existing “Meatless Monday” program in which a greater variety of non-meat items are offered each Monday to accommodate vegetarians and vegans.
Additionally, she noted that the diner offers several non-meat options every day including veggie burgers and veggie pizzas.
On a similar note, some students complained about what they feel is a lack of gluten-free food for those with gluten sensitivities.
In response, Moye pointed to signs in the diner alerting students to gluten free bread offered every day.
“Our Wild Greens venue and our Salad Bar are gluten-free and we are planning to offer Corn Tortilla for our Quesadillas at our Southwest Venue,” said Moye, who also cited gluten-free pasta available on “Pasta Day.”
Regarding other food allergies, signs are posted at several diner venues informing students that the diner handles foods containing allergic ingredients and that they can contact the manager for more information.
Diner hours were a third source of student criticisms with 68 percent of those surveyed being dissatisfied with current hours, specifically the daily 2 hour break on weekday afternoons from 2:15 to 4:30.
Moye responded stating that the small number of students utilizing the diner during those hours did not warrant keeping it open.
Thus, closing it during that time to prepare for the dinner hours was deemed more efficient in business terms.
Throughout the interview, Moye emphasized that she is more then willing to listen to and act on student concerns.
She mentioned that the Department of Dining Services holds regular meetings with students to better accommodate their needs.
Katy Thompson, Director of Residence Life, confirmed this saying that Dining Services and Chartwells have met regularly with the Resident Housing Association and other student groups to enact change.
Most recently, Starbucks was opened on Saturdays after a joint effort by RHA and the Student Government Association (SGA) to convince Moye that the expanded hours made sense.
“We’re here to make sure we accommodate our students,” promised Moye.
Tony Bara
Editor in Chief