Danay Mitchell, sophomore communication and speech pathology major, slices pizza for students Sunday afternoon in Eastway Center.

Credit: Jason Hall

For students whose taste buds are looking for a change, Dining Services may have an answer.

Recent additions made to on-campus dining establishments and menus offer customers more variety and longer hours of service, said Eugene Walters, marketing manager of Dining Services.

One of the many changes made this year include the expansion of Quiznos Sub’s menu in the Hub.

“Quiznos is now offering the full menu and all the specials,” Walters said. “It went from 16 subs to 30-plus subs now.”

Crustano’s, the sub shop located in Prentice Hall, is also offering a wider variety of wraps and sub sandwiches. Walters said prior to Crustano’s, Prentice Hall featured the Sub Connection. This store, however, didn’t effectively meet students’ needs and failed to reach out to vegetarians.

Crustano’s now offers a wider bread selection, vegetarian substitutes and longer hours.

“People who miss the technical times for dinner at Prentice can still get a quality meal,” Walters said.

Many customers are pleased with the variety of on-campus food, including freshman exploratory major Isiah Jones.

“I can go to A&W and get burgers or go upstairs and get Italian,” he said. “I figured it (campus food) would be good, and it’s better than high school food.”

Students from other universities agree Kent State has a wider variety of food in comparison to other universities.

Diana Daubner, a student at Youngstown State University, visited her friend on Kent State’s campus and said she was impressed with the selection.

“Youngstown State only has one dining hall,” she said. “It’s extremely fattening. Kent at least has a variety of things to choose from.”

Daubner said she wishes her school would get more sandwich places like Quiznos Sub.

But some students still feel there isn’t enough variety, despite the additions made this year.

Freshman nursing major Lauren McLaughlin said healthier alternatives need to be offered.

“There’s only so many healthy options,” she said. “You have to eat the same thing everyday. You get sick of them and have to resort to the fatty things.”

McLaughlin said she mainly eats at Eastway Cafe, where salads and fresh fruit are always offered.

“I think Eastway tries to change it around a little bit,” she said.

This year, the Eastway Deli, which is located on the first floor, also offers new items, including smoothies from Jazzman’s Cafe.

“Smoothies are popular, and people are accepting of it,” Walters said.

Walters said each customer’s opinion is important.

Because people define “healthy” differently, it’s hard to provide items to please everyone, he said.

“It’s through feedback – its how we make the majority of our changes,” he said. “We can only fix things if we know.”

Walters said if students want to give feedback or offer suggestions for new additions, they can talk to managers at any dining location, fill out a customer satisfaction survey, complete an online comment form or fill out a comment card at any location.

“If students had a bad meal, contact the manager on duty to fix it immediately and replace it,” he said. “No one should have to eat bad food or throw it away. We don’t want that ourselves or for our customers.”

Contact room and board reporter Stephanie Park at [email protected].