Collegiate Times

After spending a year at number one, Virginia Tech has dropped two places on the Princeton Review's "Best Campus Food" list in this year's edition of "The Best 368 Colleges."

Wheaton College, a private Christian school in Illinois with just over 2,000 students, replaced Tech at number one; Bowdoin College, a 1,700-student private school in Maine, placed second, while Tech finished third.

"The two schools that are above us are tiny, high-end schools. They practically have catered meals," said Mark Bratton, executive chef at West End Market. "With 29,000 students (at Tech), you put that into perspective; what we're doing and what they're doing, it's incredible we're in the top five."

Bratton said that he and other chefs at West End, along with all the other dining hall employees at Tech, aim to provide students with delicious food of exceptional quality.

"That's our goal, to be restaurant quality or above for our guests, to exceed expectations for food quality," Bratton said. He stressed Tech's chefs take great care in their food production.

"I think the amount of integrity we put into it, acquiring the best products for the best price (makes the food so good)," Bratton said. In reaction to the ratings, however, he said that he does still wonder why Tech dropped two places.

Senior editor of the Princeton Review's "The Best 368 Colleges" Laura Braswell said that all 62 ranking lists are based on student opinion.

"It's not the Princeton Review, it's not the editors, it's the students who decide the ranking," Braswell said. "We're listening to students and getting their views on what campuses are like."

In addition to the decline on the "Best Campus Food" list, notable rankings include Tech coming in at number 11 on the "Class Discussions Rare" list and receiving a 90 on the Princeton Review's new "Green Rating," which examined the environmentally-friendly practices of 534 colleges.

"We pretty much get great feedback from administration," Braswell said. "We absolutely want to hear from students."

Each year, students fill out surveys on how representative the current profile for their school is, and 81 percent claim the profile for their school is very or extremely accurate, Braswell said.

As for the reaction of Tech students to the change in rankings, freshmen and seasoned students alike remain supportive.

"Maybe it's not that our food quality has declined, but that the other schools may be dealing with small amounts of students," said Bryan McDaniel, a senior biology major. "I think the food is awesome and there's a wide variety of choices, many healthy options."

Freshman university studies major Morgan Findley is also unfazed. "It's still amazing," Findley said. "We're so lucky to have the food we do."