The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Helping Students Eat Healthier Even If They Don't Know It

Colleges trying to encourage a well-balanced diet have a message for students sizing up that all-you-can-eat smorgasbord in the dining hall: What you don’t know can help you. More than a dozen Massachusetts colleges have recently embarked on a stealth health campaign - covert operations to address the chronic problem of overindulging students throwing nutrition to the wind. Portions have shrunk at Wellesley College, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Plate sizes have been reduced at Merrimack College, where newly trained servers are sneaking fresh vegetables onto plates alongside meat entrees. Read more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/10/18/colleges_shrink_portions_sneak_in_healthy_ingredients/

IHEs Go Trayless To Save Money And Be Green

Call it eco-dining, or another sign of tough economic times in American academia. Pomona this fall joined a growing number of colleges in California and across the nation that have eliminated cafeteria trays in an effort to reduce food waste, cut water usage and save on energy bills. Aramark Higher Education estimates that 60% of the 600 campuses it serves are trayless, and Sodexo Inc., which works at a similar number of schools, says about 40% have switched. Read more at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-trayless14-2009sep14,0,3200940.story

Bringing Beer Back Cautiously To College Football

Beer has long been a social lubricant at tailgate parties in college-campus parking lots during football season. Increasingly, that party is moving inside the stadium. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette this weekend expects to allow fans for the first time to buy beer inside "The Swamp," as the school's stadium is known. Colleges and cities face a delicate balancing act soliciting beer sales where underage students congregate en masse. Problems have erupted in the past. The University of Colorado at Boulder, citing violence linked to drunken fans, banned beer sales in 1996. Schools are also pursuing various measures to prevent potential problems. Read more at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125271416817105157.html

We'll Pay You To Eat Here

The University of Memphis is cooking up a new way to increase a sense of community by encouraging students to stay on campus for meals. Full-time freshmen and sophomores enrolled in 12 or more hours will automatically have $300 charged to their student accounts each fall and spring semester. The money, dubbed "Dining Dollar$," will be placed on their student ID cards. The idea is to get students to eat on campus with friends, classmates and professors. Read more at:
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/13/students-get-nudge-to-dine-on-campus/

Campus Cuisine Appeals To Student Palates

Once upon a time, eating in a college dorm meant soup in a hotpot or getting pizza delivered. The most interesting thing about the campus dining hall was often the salad bar. No more. These days, college students have gourmet palates and a growing interest in preparing their own food. Mini-refrigerators and microwaves in dorm rooms are as essential as laptops. Chefs drop by dorm kitchens to give lessons, and dining halls provide takeout containers and ingredients for kids who want to cook their own meals. Read more at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gSTP959p8igfRQyTLtA1ztkq5RvQD99EDP6G0

Students Research The Impact Of Going Trayless On Food Waste

In recent years, “trayless” has become a buzzword in campus dining halls, thanks to some reduction in food and energy waste. Vallejos, 25, got a $1,800 grant to fund her research, and she is studying plate waste this spring on a case-by-case basis. The researchers on March 25 asked diners questions — such as “would going trayless affect the amount of food you take?” — and weighed the waste generated from UNC’s two main dining halls after all three meals that day. They found the average food waste per diner that day was 2.36 ounces. Read more at:

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090415/NEWS/904159953/1007/NONE&parentprofile=1001

Freshman Spend More Time With The Bottle Than The Book

Nearly half of college freshmen who drink alcohol spend more time drinking each week than they do studying, suggests a survey involving more than 30,000 first-year students on 76 campuses who took an online alcohol education course last fall. Gwendolyn Jordan Dungy, executive direct or of NASPA — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, says the findings surprised her because most literature describes the millennial generation as responsible, close to parents, focused on their careers and dedicated to service. Read more at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-11-college-drinking_N.htm

Theft Of Dining Hall Utensils Ok With Students

Utensil-rich residential college serveries present students with a prime opportunity to pinch the odd fork or spoon to round out their dorm supplies, an opportunity on which diners capitalize, students said. This trend, however, places a financial and logistical burden on Dining Services to compensate for the thefts. Every year, each residential college must replace an average of 1,000 to 1,200 forks and knives, 600 to 800 teaspoons and 300 to 500 soup spoons; it is difficult to calculate the actual number of utensils stolen, since these figures also include replacements for discarded items and silverware lost during Reunions. “I don’t really consider it stealing, because it’s not like I’ll keep them,” said one sophomore." Read more at:
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/02/25/22882/

Maintaining Vegetable Gardens Teaches Students About Sustainability

The St. Mary's garden has been a lesson in sustainability. Students used old bleachers from Madigan Gym and wood stumps to create the terraced rows, and they fertilized the less-than-ideal soil with compost from the dining halls. Among the winter vegetables growing now: lettuce, spinach, chard, bok choy and collard greens, most of which end up in dining-hall meals. Welch hopes to raise chickens there. Gardens have cropped up at several East Bay colleges in recent years. The proliferation is part of the nation's widespread move toward sustainable food production. Read more at:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11362982

It Takes Multiple Tactics To Combat Student Drinking

Students attending William Paterson University next September can live in a new "substance-free" dorm, the first college dormitory in New Jersey that will house recovering addicts with others pledging a sober lifestyle. The new dorm, part of a shift in the state-funded strategy to address underage and binge drinking on campus, underscores the lengths to which colleges will go to address the problem. Many colleges take a multi-pronged approach to address alcohol abuse, such as education, sanctions, and working with local police departments and liquor establishments to enforce laws and send a unified message to students. Read more at:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/colleges_trying_different_tact.html