2014 College Power Players: Illinois

16. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL

Students Living on Campus: 11,010
Dining Head: Dawn Aubrey, associate director of housing for dining services
Total Enrollment: 44,520
No. of Meal Plans Sold:  9,011
Annual Dining Program Revenues: $51.1 million
Cost Range of Residential Meal Plans: $4,374-$5,376/year
No. of Residential Dining Halls/Commons: 6
No. of Retail Outlets: 14
Management: self-operated
Website: www.housing.illinois.edu/Current/Dining
Phone: (217) 244-8189

All students living in undergraduate residence halls at UIUC have a meal plan as part of their contract, which gives the campus dining operation a significant and dependable revenue base. The department operates six all-you-care-to-eat residential dining halls, each with a specialty restaurant concept as part of the mix.

These range from Better Burgers with its hand-made hamburgers and hand-cut fries and Cracked Egg Café with its all-day breakfast selections (including omelets made to order) to Cocina Mexicana and Soul Ingredient (Southern style favorites). There are also Leafy and Field of Greens, both meatless concepts exclusive to the Lincoln/Allen Dining Hall.

Five a la carte retail locations round out the campus dining mix. They offer fairly basic fare such as sandwiches, burgers, bakery and coffees.

UIUC expanded its kosher food program two years ago. It now offers kosher meals in the Allen Hall Dining Room five nights a week during the academic year while the dining halls are in operation. In addition, kosher shelf-stable/frozen meals are available upon request in all dining halls and can be purchased at three a la carte locations as well as in the Illini Union Ballroom.

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