Dining survey results assessed by Marriott

Tabulations may lead to revamps

Although it required giving away coupons for Ben and Jerry's ice cream, the department of Residential Life and Services finally and fomally completed tabulations of a survey about how students feel about Campus Dining Services (CDS) and Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA).

The survey titled "Dining Changes are Going to Happen, Be Part of the Decision," was distributed to students last spring. The results are finally in and will bear upon Oberlin's decision to renew its contract with Mariott catering services.

Students were first asked to rate a number of concerns from in order of importance. The response to the concern "Cost of Plan" was overwhelming. According to the report, 87.3 percent of students feel that the cost of their dining plan is in need of some modification. Fifty-five percent of these students feel that cost is of the highest importance of all concerns the survey addressed.

Students also addressed four additional areas in which CDS needed to change. There were no areas in which students felt no need for change. After the cost of the dining plan, students rated the quality and variety of food offered as being the next most significant issue and location of dining halls after that. Students were less concerned about the size of dining halls.

Most students responded neutrally to the question concerning whether or not the current number of five CDS facilities and eight OSCA facilities should continue to operate. The majority of students strongly disagreed when asked if they thought students that live off campus should be required to be on a seven-meal-minimum plan in order to increase participation and support at Oberlin.

When asked about the duration of dining hall hours, 48 percent of students in the survey felt they should be operational for a longer period of time.

The survey then asked students if they felt that the priority for partial meal plans and/or off-board status should continue to be determined by seniority in the same way in which housing is determined. The majority of students agreed that this process should continue.

In order to assess the importance of a partial meal plan to students, Residential Life and Services asked if students would prefer CDS with a partial meal plan or OSCA with a full meal plan. Seventy-six percent said they would rather eat at CDS with a partial meal plan, indicating that convenience to most surveyed students surpasses the importance of cost. If a partial meal plan were offered through both CDS and OSCA, yet the OSCA plan cost less, 54 percent of students indicated they would rather participate in the partial meal plan with CDS.

Finally, students were asked how frequently they would eat breakfast, lunch, dinner and fourth meal on the weekdays and weekends. Fourty-four percent responded they would never eat breakfast on the weekdays and 74 percent said they would never eat it on the weekends.

Sixty-two percent said they would always eat lunch on the weekdays and 53 percent said they would sometimes eat lunch on the weekends.