Catering to the client: new-millennium universities now see their student diners as valued customers, not captive audiences.

With the growing pressure to retain students on campus after their freshman year, colleges and universities no longer focus on simply feeding students, but on "earning student satisfaction, meal by meal," says Craig Hill, Boston University's Associate VP for Business Affairs. Menu variety, and location and atmosphere of the dining destination are now driving progressive schools' dining solutions. And schools are listening closely to what their dining patrons--the student "customers"-- want.

According to Hill, "Student habits and preferences inform our meal plans and our dining-destination strategies. We know that we either accommodate students' patterns or they simply will go elsewhere to live and eat. It's a whole different mindset."

And the changed dining habits are many, Hill notes. "Students tend to eat smaller portions more often, and they stay up and eat much later than they ever have. What's more, students are only willing to walk so far to get a bite to eat, and that's even more critical at an urban campus like BU, particularly at night."

BU's solutions to these kinds of challenges may differ dramatically from those of other schools, as dining is an area where administrators are now looking for solutions unique to their own campuses. Yet, the dining-related problems tend to be similar on campuses everywhere. At schools nationwide, dining departments report that they are constantly reacting to and anticipating pressures from such directions as student advocacy, ethnic diversity, changing habits, and the need to control costs. Student preference was the driving force behind the Sustainable Food Project at Yale University (CT). Berkeley Dining Room has been transformed with fresh, natural foods and the initiative supports local suppliers and growers.

Still, because costs can be hard to contain, many campus managers are zero-base budgeting their food operations by focusing on student needs. "At least that was our premise," says BU's Hill, "when we launched the BreadWinner's soup, salad, and sandwich cafe (which incorporates a Starbucks outlet) in the School of Management. It's been a huge success," he says, "because it responds to what our busy business students want: fast, affordable and convenient." Enabling this is ARAMARK, says Hill. "They've been with us since 1976, for every step in the process. Their employees take on the culture of our university."

In fact, BreadWinner's Cafe was conceived and designed for the on-the-run student, faculty and staff constituencies consistent with ARAMARK's MarketMATCH program. Says Hill, "It's a technique that creates a dining 'master plan' that takes us out five years and breaks an urban campus into neighborhoods. Our professional retail and residential dining staff knows everything about BU and our students. They incorporate scheduling, traffic patterns, competition, demographics, you-name-it. And they know this by being part of our school and by talking to everyone involved, from students to school administrators."

According to Naala Royale, Vice President of Marketing, ARAMARK Dining Services, "We work closely with a range of campus community segments, including faculty, staff and students at each school we serve. We refine meal plans so that dining options best meet the needs of their students. We create retail dining environments that work for each campus. The programs accommodate the changing tastes of incoming freshmen and offer convenience and flexibility to upperclassmen who live off campus, and commuters and non-traditional students. A successful dining program includes variety, convenience, nutrition, as well as culinary innovation, student preference and retail solutions."

In truth, the "outright pursuit" of students is what Dining Services has been transformed into, agrees Southern Methodist University's (TX) Julie Wiksten, Director of Auxiliary Services. "Schools used to operate on the premise that once they got the students on campus, they were a captive audience." More competitive college environments, increasingly sophisticated taste among young people, and the burgeoning influx of ethnic students and menus in the last decade, have all dramatically changed dining policies, she says, adding, "We give our dining spots a retail feel. The students want smoothies, made-to-order wraps and salads, everything specifically to their tastes. Frankly, students had better like the dining variety schools provide, or they'll vote with their meal plans."

At SMU, the vote is lopsided in favor of the recent changes and upgrades at dining venues, including reactions from faculty aim staffers. Wiksten reports that in the past year-and-a-half, thanks to upgraded menus and facilities, more than 300 faculty and staff (up from fewer than 10) have opted to purchase the school's special 10-meal package.