by Vanessa Hargreaves
Montclair State University’s dining services composed an online survey that tracked the buying behaviors and eating habits of MSU students, faculty and staff.
The survey ended on Monday, and all participants that took the 10 to 15 minute survey were eligible to win a prize as a “thank you” for giving their feedback.
E-mails were sent out to encourage all of the campus to participate, and the survey was extended two additional days due to the previous week’s weather conditions.
James Robinson, coordinator of dining services, commented that the university had conducted a similar survey in 2008 and were trying it again in 2010 in hopes of changing the meal options that are available to campus life.
Their “master plan,” Robinson said, “is to determine the outlook of dining services over the next 3-5 years. Data from this master plan will help determine the placement of and the menus of existing and new campus food venues.”
Some questions in the survey allow for suggestions or opinions of what new venues could be introduced to MSU’s campus, such as Taco Bell and Veggie Heaven, which could impact the consumer purchasing greatly if there are a high amount of requests for a particular venue or change to be made.
A good sample size that could accurately represent MSU’s whole campus community for the dining services research would be 1,000 or more participants.
When asked what the main reason why prizes were being awarded to participants was Robinson said it was for two primary reasons — “Prizes serve as a reward to respondents who take time out of their schedules to provide organizations with their opinions,” said Robinson, “and it is proven that a greater number of responses to surveys are seen when prizes are offered.”
Several MSU students took the survey and believe that is a good idea for dining services to allow the campus community’s opinions to be heard.
“I took the survey because of the prizes and to ask for more pierogies to be served at the Blanton Cafeteria,” junior Michelle Steindhardt said. “But seriously, I just suggested that more options should be available on campus.”
Another student commented about the location of student food facilities.
“There should be an accessible food venue near Clove Road Apartments and the Village,” sophomore Brittany Benevento. “A healthy alternative like Panera Bread would be good, since Café Diem is overpriced and far.”
The dining services survey allowed the MSU community to display their opinions on their personal needs, as well as proposing new venues that could benefit for all campus life. The budget, as well as the quality of the food was weighed in this survey.
