How The University of Indianapolis turned its dining hall into a campus destination

When University of Indianapolis’ Ober Dining Hall was due for an upgrade earlier this year, Quest Food Management Services made sure students’ voices were heard during the design planning. 

“Our main goal [for the renovation] was to utilize the feedback that we had been gathering from the community in the student population for a two year time span,” says Resident District Manager Amy Dugan. “We wanted to be able to integrate the student needs and demand for the program into the design process.”

Based on their feedback, the team was able to transform the space this fall into a eatery that provides students with a wide-range of menu options and serves as the go-to spot on campus to connect with others. 

The renovated space made its debut at the start of the semester. 

Building community 

As the dining team planned out the concept’s food stations, it wanted to move most of the food preparation and cooking from the back-of-house to the front. 

Each of the stations was renovated to include live cooking in front of diners. At the action station, for example, guests can look on as a chef prepares made-to-order omelettes and the pizza station includes an oven where students can watch their pies bake. 

One of the most popular features of the new dining area, Dugan says, is the global station, which features two woks and serves a variety of noodles, fried rice, halal proteins and more. Students can also select from a rotating list of ingredients to build their own bowls.  

“We fire it in the wok right in front of them and it's really fresh and hot,” says Dugan. 

Making the space more welcoming to students was another one of the team’s objectives. Previously, the dining hall was behind doors in its own separate area and students had to pay to gain access.

Quest decided to get rid of the doors and open up the space. Now, while students still have to swipe in to visit the dining stations, the seating area is accessible to everyone in the building, whether they're eating or not. 

Since opening, Dugan has already noticed a lot more students utilizing the space to meet with their friends, talk to professors and more. 

“It's really led to more community building,” she says. Students are spending a lot more time in the student center and made it more of a destination and a comfortable space to hang out.”

The global station contains two woks used to serve a variety of noodles, fried rice, halal proteins and more.

Incorporating student feedback 

Even though the dining hall has been open for weeks, the team is still actively collecting feedback from students through online surveys. 

“Since it's a new concept, we are monitoring really, really closely what's going really well and what the students are liking,” says Dugan. 

The dining team receives new menu ideas from students each week and uses those  suggestions to constantly evolve the dining hall’s offerings. The team tries its best to honor students’ menu requests, Dugan says, no matter how complicated they may be. 

One student, for example, asked that octopus be offered as a protein at the Global Station and the team was able to serve it as a limited time offer (LTO). Other recipe ideas that are simpler, such as one student’s suggestion to serve his grandma’s peach cobbler, can make more routine appearances on the menu.

“We have a dessert station that allows for hot dessert,” says Dugan. “So that was really easy for us to integrate.”

The University of Indianapolis draws students from a variety of different backgrounds, Dugan says, and providing students with a taste of home is something the team enjoys doing. 

“We're able to kind of feel a little bit more like home, which is always an honor to be able to do that,” she says.