Just roughly one month into the academic year, UT dining has already extended its meal equivalency options.
The IHOP Express in the Presidential Court Building now features meal equivalency for breakfast only, from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The Volunteer Hall Quizno’s Subs location now accepts meal equivalency for Saturday lunch, Sunday lunch and Sunday dinner. Also, McAlister’s Deli in the Cafe at the Arena now has Monday through Thursday meal equivalency dinner from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., rather than the previous start time of 4:30 p.m.
The quick changes are a result of student feedback at the UT dining Web site, Mary Leslie Patterson, UT dining marketing director, said. She said feedback has been optimum, full of suggestions as specific as “less icing on the cakes.”
“Simple things that we change immediately,” she said. “And one of the things that we try to stress is that — give us your feedback. If there’s something you really like, tell us, and then we won’t change it. If you see something that, you think that might need to be adjusted a little bit, tell us too, so that we can react immediately.”
Other changes on the horizon include the debut of free coffee Mondays this week at IHOP, as well as new $5, $6 and $7 combos at the location.
The very existence of the new 24/7 IHOP Express, which Patterson called the first-ever IHOP on a college campus, can also be attributed to student outcry.
“Overwhelmingly, it was IHOP,” she said. “... It’s doing really well. It’s very busy late night.”
Despite the 24/7 schedule of the restaurant, Patterson said UT dining has not heard of any problems with security, though she said she is unfamiliar with how much UTPD activity the area receives late at night.
Overall she said the layout of the new Presidential Court Cafe completely changes the environment.
“I think it’s easier because the dining areas are so much larger, and it’s so much more open,” she said. “... I think it’s relaxed. It’s just a whole different atmosphere.”
As a result of the changes, UT dining moved its offices from the Presidential Court Building to Dunford Hall. The Grill was eliminated, with Chick-fil-A heading to the UC to replace Burger King, whereas Pizza Hut is expected to debut at the Cafe at the Arena sometime this semester, she said. GrilleWorks, the burger restaurant in the Grill, was eliminated, among others.
Moving the Chick-fil-A to the UC allowed for an expansion of the menu from what the Grill location offered.
“So we’re able to offer the lemonade and the wraps,” she said.
Pizza Hut was moved to the Arena because of existing pizza options in cafeteria-style pizza at the Presidential Court Cafe and Sbarro’s at the UC.
With the absence of Burger King, UT dining is now looking at adding a burger option, surveying the students to see what would be favorable.
“I’m a huge Burger King fan,” said Jon “J.D.” Reed, senior in finance. “I loved Burger King, so I’m not really happy with the Chick-fil-A switch.”
However, he said the addition of the IHOP is favorable for him, who is unappreciative of what he calls restrictive dinner times at campus restaurants.
“We like to come here (the UC) to eat dinner, and lots of times we don’t make the time,” Reed said. “I usually eat dinner later so I might have to start IHOP’ing it.”
With three Quizno’s Subs locations and one McAlister’s Deli on campus already, UT dining added yet another deli sandwich restaurant: the new Subway in the Presidential Court Cafe. Even with all the other locations, students still demand more sandwich options, Patterson said.
“Whenever we survey the students ... on this campus, overwhelmingly deli is the No. 1 choice of items they want to eat,” she said.
Even with the expansion of meal equivalency times, D.K. Staton, junior in political science, said meal equivalency is faulty because it only contributes so much money to the price of the meal.
“Even when they do offer the meal equivalency, it’s still only like $4, $4.50,” Staton said. “You have to pay the rest of that with your dining dollars. So find a meal anywhere in here (the UC) that’s $4.50, and I’ll pay for it out of my own pocket. It’s not possible.”