The Division of Student Life fosters student success by creating and promoting educationally purposeful services and activities within and beyond the classroom. The departmental program review process empowers departments within the Division of Student Life to critically evaluate their work and their effect on the UI student experience through a lens of continuous improvement. The University Dining review took place in spring 2025. 

Recommendation 1: Wages and Compensation

Practice better financial awareness through and understanding of operational costs, such as food, labor, expenses, while evaluating the rate of compensation for P&S, Merit, and Student workers to be competitive in both the university and Iowa City market.

Year 2 action items

  • Commission market study to include benchmarking with Big Ten peers in P&S position levels.
  • Review of merit staff level positions and comparison study of off campus rates and similar roles on-campus.
  • Review of student staff level positions and comparison study of off campus rates and similar roles on-campus.
  • Determine plan for offsetting costs. 

  • Complete the Wage Compensation Study and adjust wages to meet the market standards. 

  • A plan was developed to offset the costs of the reorganization and potential wage increases from the wage comparison study.  It is being implemented for fiscal year 2027. 

Success measures and updates

  • Market study complete.
  • Adjustment of wages that fall below the market study findings. 
  • Show detail savings of where the funds are coming to pay for the adjustments.

  • Completed a dining reorganization of positions including the creation of new positions that foster career growth paths for both Merit and Professional & Scientific positions. (completed spring 2026)

Recommendation 2: Improve Financial Accountability   

Practice better financial awareness through budget managements and fiscal awareness, holding people accountable for meeting their financial goals which will allow us to expand and grow dining in an uncertain economic landscape.                              

Year 2 action items

  • Create budget form to accurately track revenue, costs, expenses and profitability.
  • Complete forecasts with previous year data, budgets and actuals to analyze and compare performance year-over-year.
  • Look at how revenue is tracked and ensure it is accurate.
  • Track and analyze menu costs and expenses.
  • Determine ways to control costs through recipe and product evaluation, pre and post consumer waste, and vendor relations. 

Success measures and updates

  • Complete budget forms. Have completed an initial draft.  Shared with the team and am making adjustments. (completed spring 2026)
  • Complete forecast for FY26 Budget prior to going to BOR.
  • Show complete and accurate revenue for budget sheets.
  • Record expenses and identify high cost menu items.
  • Complete a plan to control costs in these areas. 

Recommendation 3: Strategize the Student Dining Experience 

We need to tell our story in a way that captures the attention of the current generation of students and future generations, through student specific communication, the presentation of the food, the appearance of our locations, our programs such as Market 2 Go, sustainable practices and merchandizing packaging.

Year 2 action items

  • Create a dining only marketing program with individual unit social media, material design, promotions and website oversight.
  • Create events that engage our students and staff in a memorable manner.
  • Evaluate the Market 2 Go program.
  • Evaluate and update merchandising look for all locations, including display vessels, graphics, etc.
  • Annually assess meal plan program and offerings.
  • Review retail locations for financial viability.
  • Annually assess the catering program on campus. 

Success measures and updates

  • A separate marketing person for dining, who reports to both dining and SLC.
  • Identify pop-ups and theme meal for the upcoming semester and year.
  • Gather 6 months worth of usage and return data.
  • Identify display/graphic need items and put together a plan to complete it.
  • Gather feedback, both financial and experiential, and propose adjustments.
  • Review data and set up an action plan for low performing locations.
  • Review data and set up an action plan to enhance shortcomings. 
  • Conducted a survey to assess the effectiveness of the new meal plans and sent it out to students at the end of the spring semester.  We received over 800 responses and have begun analyzing the results to implement changes if necessary. (completed spring 2026)
  • Started analyzing the effectiveness of the Market 2 Go program.  This looked at the usage, return rates, and other aspects of the program.  It also involved feedback from our other Big 10 partners. (in progress spring 2026)

Recommendation 4: Building Partnerships Between Individual Units and the Campus 

Grow the partnerships and relationships, not just internally between units, but with other departments on campus, through improved communication, operational standards, efficiencies and synergistic partnerships that allows the campus community and dining to flourish.

Year 2 action items

  • Increase communication between dining locations.
  • Have scheduled all-staff meetings and communication plan to provide information to internal staff.
  • Standardize the communication to staff in each unit, so it is the same and familiar in all locations.
  • Build relationships with departments outside of the Division of Student Life.
  • Provide State of Dining updates to DSL leadership, Student Government, and Admissions each semester.
  • Update campus community with dining news consistently. 

Success measures and updates

  • Have defined processes in place with a follow-up measure identified.
  • Identify dates and agenda three months in advance.
  • Have defined processes in place with a follow-up measure identified.
  • Have designated contacts in other departments and a positive relationship with them.
  • Identify dates prior to the start of the semester.
  • Implement a dining hub on the website, along with more dining specific news in weekly communications to the campus. 
  • Introduced an internal monthly newsletter for dining locations that talk about upcoming events, open positions, and key items to know. (in progress fall 2025)
  • Partnered with several non-dining groups for events and promotions, including the Undergraduate Student Government,  and Professor Staak and his Marketing Analytics class.  We also presented and provided updates to USG, tour guides, orientation leaders, parents and more throughout the year. (completed fall 2025; spring 2026)

Recommendation 5: Employee Engagement

Our employees are crucial to our success.  We need to find a way to speed up and enhance the hiring process for all positions, provide effective onboarding and retain all of our employees.  We also want to provide growth opportunities to all levels of employees along with the training and development of their professional skills to ensure that they are qualified to take on advanced positions and provide improved service and knowledge to our campus community.

Year 2 action items

  • Provide dedicated onboarding time within units.
  • Evaluate and assign staff development opportunities to all levels.
  • Evaluate our recognition programs and the awards provided at all levels.
  • Set recruiting standards to improve speed of hiring process and explore other avenues of recruitment.
  • Provide dining staff time to complete group trainings without having to worry about operations.
  • Review organizational chart and job descriptions of positions to provide career growth for all levels of staff.
  • Evaluate the addition of part-time staff.
  • Evaluate the interview process for lower level staff positions. 

Success measures and updates

  • Everyone attends onboarding on their first day. (completed spring 2026)
  • Identify staff development opportunities and a schedule for who needs them.
  • Gather and review feedback from team.
  • Written timeline from start to finish with checklist to show progress.
  • Identify dates that all dining locations can close for training twice per year.
  • Complete organizational chart and job descriptions.
  • Review costs and needs of 50% staff.
  • Review the process for lower level staff positions and identify ways to speed up the process. (ongoing)
  • Added more recognition for staff and expanded the employee of the semester program to include one person for each dining location as well as an overall employee of the semester for students, merit, and professional and scientific staff. (ongoing)

Recommendation 6: Supporting the Dietary Needs of all Customers 

Ensure that our menu provides variety while also meeting the allergen and dietary requirements for our students.

Year 2 action items

  • Assess, evaluate, provide, and market vegan and vegetarian menu items.
  • Evaluate allergen friendly options in all locations.
  • Implement clear labeling, training, and communications to ensure safety.
  • Evaluate menu cycle for balanced dietary requirements.
  • Evaluate dining options as a whole to ensure variety between retail and residential locations. 

Success measures and updates

  • Items on the menu and tell our story about these items.
  • Identify which current allergen friendly items are popular and look at options.
  • Review menu for dietary requirements and present recommendations to address issues.
  • Identify duplicate items that could be replaced to provide a new item increasing variety. 
  • Added a second dietitian to the team to provide more support for the growing number of student dietary needs and to provide more education and product tasting for students during meal periods. (completed spring 2026)
  • Our dietitians have included more updates and new allergen alerts to our line signs in the marketplaces to better identify potential allergens to consumers.  They have also continued to work on assessing the vegan and vegetarian meals that are offered throughout dining. (ongoing)

Recommendation 7: Evaluating the Quality and Production of the Units 

Continue to expand on improving the quality of food, purchasing local ingredients when possible, and developing a more robust central production kitchen with cold food prep and bakery.

Year 2 action items

  • Evaluate our food items for quality, price and availability.
  • Improve the presentation and packaging of in-house made retail items.
  • Evaluate the bakery and cold food prep menu.
  • Investigate creating a more centralized production kitchen to produce more products from scratch.
  • Evaluate menu cycle for variety between meal periods, proteins, and flavors.

Success measures and updates

  • Identify top and bottom items in each category and propose options. 
  • Provide research and information about how, where, and ROI for a facility.
  • Identify concerns and propose adjustments to increase variety. (ongoing)

Recommendation 8: Technology

Incorporate technology from today and tomorrow into the program to engage with more students and increase satisfaction.

Year 2 action items

  • Evaluate the use of mobile credentials as an alternative method of a meal swipe.
  • Identify opportunities for digital signage to replace line signage.
  • Evaluate Cbord and its role in dining and not as a financial system.
  • Evaluate robotics and automation as an alternative to stations. 
  • Complete the RFPs for mobile/kiosk ordering and for our Food Service Software system. 

Success measures and updates

  • Identify options available and the benefits or concerns with kiosk/mobile ordering. (in progress spring 2026)
  • Identify options available and the benefits or concerns with mobile credentials.
  • Identify options available and the benefits or concerns with digital signage. (completed spring 2026)
  • Identify options available and the benefits or concerns with Cbord. (in progress spring 2026)
  • Identify options available and the benefits or concerns with robotics and automation as an alternative to stations.
2019 Action Plan