Reimagining the Duke Dining experience

Duke University prides itself on the diversity of its campus dining options. Any student who has visited another university can appreciate how privileged we are to have more than 30 eateries available to us on campus. Indeed, our unique dining program has drawn applause from students and is seen as a competitive advantage in college admissions.

This choice comes with a cost. In order to maintain the broad selection of eateries, Duke effectively subsidizes the dining program to the tune of a few million dollars per year. Many departments—including Athletics—are subsidized by general University funds, and the recession has made it clear that Duke Dining (among other departments) needs to become more solvent. While making this change will not be easy, we believe that it gives us all the chance to think critically about our dining program and make long-term changes that are ultimately more cost-effective and will bring the community closer together.

What does it mean to rethink the Duke Dining experience? It means that first of all we consider what the purpose of food on campus is. Is dining an experience for the student, in an atmosphere and space that brings people together to engage each other? Consider the Marketplace, where freshmen can share meals with their classmates at all hours of the day. Alternatively, as many upperclassmen believe, should dining be quick, convenient and inexpensive?

With some notion of what you think the dining experience should be, consider the basics of Duke Dining. Does having over 30 campus eateries—many of which are only open until lunch—suit our needs anymore? Should the Great Hall grow to become the focal point of West Campus dining, or should it be replaced in favor of more popular, branded concepts? At the risk of losing campus eateries, should we really maintain the Merchants-on-Points program?

Last semester, University administrators presented us with something called “directed choice,” which was their quick-fix solution that guided more dining dollars to Duke-run eateries like the Great Hall. We have made our position clear on this proposal: It fails to consider the impact of our dining model on student life and gives those it serves—including you—only false choices. It also ignores numerous issues with the same dining facilities it forces us to use. Clearly, this is not the solution.

But the $2.2 million gap remains this year, and we would be remiss if we did not take this opportunity to repair a broken system. We challenge the administration to move on from the tired idea of “directed choice,” and we hope you will join us in encouraging them to keep students in the picture.

Awa Nur and Mike Lefevre are president and chief of staff of Duke Student Government, respectively.