The next opportunity may be at the end of your fork

Sometimes the answer is right under your nose. Or at the end of your fork.

I’ve experienced my fair share of college dining halls over four decades. And while I can tell you where to find the best campus pizza, BBQ, and grilled cheese, I remain perplexed that food service is routinely dismissed as simply a necessary vendor relationship.

And that’s unfortunate. There are few activities on campuses that bring the entire community together daily in such great numbers. This must be a top priority topic of discussion.

Colleges and universities spend countless millions attempting to craft stories of student engagement and connection with campus life. We argue college is more than collecting course credits. Few higher education professionals, however, view food service as among the most effective ways to illustrate the mission and bring the daily student experience to life. We often categorize food service as we do parking: an “auxiliary service.” We know from experience students routinely rate campus food service lower on the satisfaction scale. Perhaps this isn’t a matter of how the vegetables are prepared or the selection on the salad bar. Just maybe we haven’t fully captured how to incorporate the dining experience with campus life.

This narrative needs to change.

A priority list for this overlooked partnership.

1. Recognize there are untapped alliances on campus. The most consequential partnerships on campus to impact admissions and marketing may just need a champion to bring key players together. The best admissions and marketing ideas do not necessarily have a high price tag attached.

2. Acknowledge food service as an integral part of student recruitment, retention, and branding. Begin with a brainstorming exercise to identify how and if food service is leveraged currently to recruit and retain students. Do we incorporate the dining experience into brand messaging, prospective student communication, campus visit programs, and student satisfaction/retention strategies? Think of this as blurring the lines between the dining locations and the rest of campus – it should be an overall student experience with few silos.

3. Invite your food service partners to join enrollment management and marketing discussions. Tap the marketing expertise of your food service partners. They often have a large corporate team focused on communications and marketing. How can your institutional marketing and admissions team benefit from including your food service partners and their colleagues to address this collaborative effort? Review the current admissions and marketing materials – does your print and digital collateral reflect the dining experience in creative ways (you very likely need to expand your photo library of current images)? Remember, these firms are focused on long term engagements with their college and university client campuses and will likely jump at the opportunity to work together. So when they ask your staff to weigh in with suggestions, take the offer seriously and respond with meaningful feedback.

4. Illustrate authentic student life through the culinary experience and gathering of students, faculty, staff, and guests. How does the dining experience complement the type of institution you purport to be? If being student-centered is a leading brand message, does the physical appearance and feel of the dining hall align? Atmospherics matter! Merriam-Webster defines atmospherics as actions intended to create or suggest a particular atmosphere or mood. Simply put, the food tastes better and the experience is valued more when there is careful attention paid to the “place.” Then, you are ready to introduce this experience to prospective students and guests.

5. Bring the campus together. The regular presence of faculty and staff in the central dining location speaks volumes about the degree to which the institution views food service as a community engagement venue. What strategies do you have to encourage your employees to frequent the dining hall with regularity? Some of the best faculty-student mentoring take place over a piece of pie and coffee. Keep in mind visiting students and families will observe faculty and staff interacting with current students -a powerful example of an authentic community. (We should also be mindful that prospective “customers” are sampling the fare daily and at special admissions events.)

6. Recognize that most communication about food plans has a “compliance tone.” Most colleges and universities clearly promote food plan options. But this communication is often transactional and found somewhere in a list of fees and policies. “If you are a residential student living in ABC residence hall, you must purchase the XYZ food plan.” Do you see the issue? We need our industry to move beyond compliance communication to one where the value proposition is loud and clear.

7. Bring the life of the institution into the dining hall. Institutions typically have tens of thousands of square feet dedicated to food service. In collaboration with your food service and student life colleagues ask this question: what are the immediate opportunities for incorporating the daily life of the college student into the food service locations?

8. Pay attention to the competition. What do your prospective students see at other institutions they may be considering? Do they experience an institutional feel in dining spaces or do they encounter a seamless flow from the academic and student life aspects of campus into the eating venues? Are you currently at an advantage of disadvantage?

Cutting-edge colleges and universities are adept at connecting existing dots. The necessary elements to launch an intentional admissions, marketing, and food service plan likely already exist.

After all, it isn’t simply how good the food tastes. More importantly, does the dining experience further the delivery on institutional mission?

Will you take a moment to look at end of your fork?

David Mee, Ed.D. is Vice President for Enrollment Management at Campbell University (NC). His 36-year career has included multiple enrollment leadership positions, as well as consulting projects at more than 70 colleges and universities. Dr. Mee welcomes feedback at dmee@campbell.edu.