I’m at a loss as to why UCF Rosen College of Hospitality campus has gotten rid of all food. No cafe, no cafeteria, no coffee shop (free coffee in Student lounge during certain hours. It’s a Keurig - not a Starbucks). Only food available is a very, very small selection of prepackaged sandwiches (like you’d find in a convenience store, ewww!) in the tiny bookstore. For 3000 people on campus.
When questioned, I found staff to be rather condescending. Really makes a person rethink attending this campus. Isn’t part of the college experience NOT spending hours and hours of your time shopping, planning, prepping, cooking, consuming food? Not that 18 year olds can’t, but they won’t. And they shouldn’t.
Do other colleges/campuses do this?? Really kind of crazy when you consider this is a school of Hospitality.
Never heard of this anywhere else. And it doesn’t make economic sense. They are passing up a lot of revenue from the sale of concessions to vendors and of food to students.
From a two second google search it looks like all the dorms are set up as apartments with full kitchens so it is not crazy to expect that students can handle their own meals. When I was in college (years ago) and lived in a suite with a kitchen I was not on any meal plan nor was my S when he had that type of living arrangement. Plenty of meals can be made without hours and hours of planning (frozen dinners and pasta are your friends). It isn’t ideal and it absolutely would be nice if they had some options like a cafeteria or a place to pick up a quick fresh meal,
Based on the reaction to your question it sounds unlikely that the college will change it in the near futures. So if that type of independent living arrangement it isn’t right for you, then seek out other colleges where the residential life set-up better suit your needs.
What’s so wrong with prepackaged convenience store sandwiches? Not everybody grows up with a personal chef preparing high-quality meals from farm-fresh ingredients.
That’s main campus. Main campus is AMAZING! Dozens of restaurants, multiple cafeterias. The busiest Subway in the world. Seriously.
UCF Rosen College of Hospitality is about an hour away in normal Orlando traffic. There is a lot around it - but nothing ON campus, so nothing you can get quickly.
Happy1, I guess that’s why I’m asking. Most new dorms being built are nice like this. At least, the ones I’ve seen are. So are universities going to start taking away cafeterias and dining plans? Switch all dorms to apartments and then dining is one less thing they have to handle.
As a parent who paid over $5500 for the freshman meal plan while also paying for a ‘kitchenette’ in the freshman housing (all suite style apt w/ 4 single rooms and a kitchette with full fridge and microwave, but no stove), I would LOVE it if schools didn’t require meal plans! My daughter would have spent about $1000 for the year if she could have cooked in her own apt.
If it is an issue for you, get involved. Ask the student government to have the school recruit some deli or fast food eating places on campus. If there is enough business, Subway or Panera or one of the businesses will open a place. Many of us lived with a few vending machines for chips and candy.
I’ve seen some schools do this. Especially those where the majority of students commute to campus. Usually, it’s a cost issue. For example, one local school here eliminated their dining and replaced it with vending machines (nice ones, but vending machines none the less) because they were losing money on their dining. They’d tried everything, and even the least expensive option would have had them $100,000 in the hole every year, so they stopped offering food service.
Honestly, in your shoes, I would keep a case of water and a case of granola bars in the car. Yep, the water will get hot, though I suspect there are water fountains somewhere. But hot water will do if you’re thirsty enough.
I took a few classes at Golden Gate University, which is a business-oriented school in San Francisco, and the only food available was from a few vending machines in the student lounge. When you left the “campus”, which was one big building downtown, there were tons of cafes and shops around.