Hastings College has partnered with Scott Residential Management, a company that also works with the University of Nebraska Omaha, to implement changes to the dining hall. Students expressed their concerns over the dining hall last year through surveys sent out by the college. While changes have been made, students still differ on whether or not these changes are better than before. 

These new changes took place over the summer and will continue throughout the fall as well. This decision was supported by the HC Board of Trustees, the Walter Scott Family Foundation and other supporters of HC. 

The college’s website has a statement about the dining hall food, which included a promise that they will “strive to provide healthy food, a constantly changing hotline, a fresh salad bar, a grill area and a wide section of hot and cold beverages.” A hotline is the main meal that the dining hall provides for the students. 

HC president Rich Loyd said in an interview with local TV station, KSNB, that the college worked with board members and students to discuss the layout of the new plans for the dining hall before they took place. 

“The dining hall has changed a lot since last year, which I’m glad about because the food is better,” said sophomore Hugo Basco from the Canary Islands, Spain. However, after all of these changes that took place over the summer, some students enjoyed the new food along with the new additions. Other students were not as convinced. 

“I think that the food got a little better. It’s definitely not as good as they were hyping it up. They took a lot of the food options away, and I hope that they fulfill more of their promises but it’s hard to tell because it’s only been two weeks,” said sophomore Riley Bragg from Omaha. 

Many of the students rely on the dining hall for three meals a day, so HC also decided to change their dining hall hours to fit into more students’ schedules. 

While these dining hall hours changed some students with busier schedules still can’t seem to make it in time. “Very often, due to the fact that most of our sporting events are at night during the hours of 4-8 and sometimes it’s hard to catch the dining hall,” said Amiel Johnson who is from the Bahamas.

As the school year continues students HC will continue to work with students and listen to their concerns to make the campus better for everyone.