Survey gauges students' opinions on dining

With the Student Voice survey, students have the opportunity to express their opinions about Penn Dining for the first time this year.

Over the past week, Penn Dining Services representatives collaborated with student groups on campus and created an online survey, the purpose of which was to gauge student satisfaction and areas that could use improvement, Regional Director of Nutrition for Bon Appetit at Penn Dining Terri Brownlee said.

Participants were eligible to win a prize of a $300 gift certificate from Southwest Airlines.

Although Business Services provides an annual dining hall survey for Penn’s community, this year was different because it was a collaborative effort with Bon Appetit — Penn’s new dining service — Business Service spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger said.

Bon Appetit brought with it the concept of Student Voice, a company they partner with to create a survey that deeply involves students, according to Director of Business Services for Penn Dining Laurie Cousart.

“I took the survey because there was some feedback I wanted to give Penn dining ­­— I wasn’t happy with King Court’s dining hours and I would like for that to change,” Wharton freshman Amelia Wilson said.

She found the survey “pretty comprehensive,” she said.

Wilson appreciated “that they were collecting student feedback about how much students value different local food movement and sustainable dining.”

Representatives from the Undergraduate Assembly, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, Hillel Student Leadership , the Residential Advisory Board and the Inter-Fraternity and the Panhellenic Councils reviewed the survey, edited the questions and suggested additional ones, specifically a section concerning late night dining, according to Cousart.

Each group played a role in redesigning the survey.

Because it was geared mostly toward undergraduates, “I worded some question differently to create more of an appeal to graduates,” Vice Chairman of GAPSA Lee Solomon said.

The UA was representative of the needs of the student body in general. Members highlighted the different eating demands of the athletic community and the Greek community depending on whether or not they had a dining plan. Other considerations included Hillel members’ kosher restrictions and the needs of vegans and vegetarians, according to UA Committee Director Tyler Ernst, a Wharton and Engineering sophomore.

The UA wanted to make sure that the survey was “extremely inclusive in that it addressed the dietary needs that weren’t addressed,” Ernst said.

Through this process, Brownlee explained, students can get “closer and closer to the ideal dining service they see on campus.”

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