University’s annual event builds ties with local families

This is part of Food Management's new Community program, which highlights the ways onsite operators are lending a helping hand in their communities.

Town-and-gown issues are often tricky waters to navigate for colleges that sit amidst larger communities, especially if the school is a large public university with enrollment figures well into five figures. That’s the case in Stillwater, Okla., where a community of some 45,000 residents sits adjacent to the main campus of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and its 24,000 or so students.

Like most schools in such circumstances, OSU tries hard to be a good neighbor and one of the more fun initiatives is the annual Summer on the Plaza event that usually takes place each Thursday over a span of six weeks in late May and through June to avoid the blistering heat of high summer in Oklahoma. At Summer on the Plaza, members of the Stillwater community and their children are invited to come to the plaza outside the OSU Student Union where a free concert is held accompanied by activities like water slides, local performers and booths promoting local businesses and organizations like the library and the children’s museum.

Oklahoma State dining employees prepare concessions items for attendees of the school’s Summer on the Plaza community event. (Photo: Oklahoma State Dining)

“We had gone through a renovation of the Student Union and I was charged with the task in 2012 of finding a way to highlight our new amphitheater area,” recalls Brandon Mitts, manager of arts, culture and entertainment at OSU, about the genesis of the event. “It’s this wonderful outside facility with brick and built-in seating that is perfect for all kinds of different activities, so we came up with this summer concert series, and dining services has always been a part of it.”

OSU Dining supports Summer on the Plaza by operating concessions, including an open-air grill where burgers and hot dogs are made fresh all evening. Other items include chips, soda, ice cream from a cart, soda and popcorn from a popper machine.

Everything is modestly priced to appeal to families. Popcorn and ice cream are only a buck and a hot dog/chips/soda combo meal can be had for $4.

“The idea was to create affordable food that families can enjoy together and with a fair atmosphere,” offers Bill Moloney, director of OSU Dining. “We wanted to partner with Brandon and his group to enhance the experience of the plaza.”

The staff operating during the event is drawn from the Student Union operation led by the manager, Rick Williamson.

“They took care of it every Thursday and did a really good job,” Moloney says. “We just allocated some of the regular dining staff each Thursday.”

In past years, food was also available at some of the service points inside the Student Union but that has been dropped except for the Union Express c-store, which stays open to sell OSU logoed merchandise, which is generally discounted for the event.

“We just found that once families were outside, they preferred to stay outside,” says Vedda Hsu, associate director of dining services, “so to encourage people to come in the last couple years we just had the food outside to encourage the fair theme.”

The event has grown from initial nightly counts of around 75 to as many as 400 to 450 a night this past summer. Good weather has helped. The only rainouts came over a couple of days last year, “but when that’s a problem we can move the whole thing inside. We have the whole Student Union building,” Mitts says.

Attendance is primarily from the outside community as the event schedule falls at a time when spring classes are done and before summer classes really gear up, but students who do live in the area serve as volunteers at the events.

Word of mouth about the annual event has grown with the years but it is still promoted through a banner at the visitor’s bureau and on the Student Union itself as well as through newspaper ads and flyers posted around the community.

The Summer on the Plaza events are primarily geared to enhancing relations with the Stillwater community but the hope is that some of the fun memories rub off on the kids who come with their parents.

“I think we’re creating a really positive experience in these young people’s lives so when they grow up and have a chance to go to college they’ll have positive associations with OSU,” Mitts offers.