Collegiate Times

Students will not be the only people studying on reading day. Officials from Pennsylvania State University will be touring Virginia Tech's dining facilities in an effort to improve their own.

On May 7, eight Penn State officials will be observing the practices of Tech's dining services.

Ivy Awards and consistently high rankings from the Princeton Review have been getting the university's dining services noticed.

After a recent visit from Michigan State University, Pennsylvania State University will be the latest to visit Tech's facilities.  

"They're one of the best in the business, and we would like to come down and see some of the newer additions to the program," said Lisa Wandel, director of residential dining at Penn State.  

Penn State is looking to renovate some of its dining halls in the next two to three years.

Wandel said looking at other schools' dining halls would help formulate new ideas on how to remodel Penn State's dining buildings.  

"The neat thing about college food services is that you're not right across the street like restaurants," Wandel said. "It's nice to be able to share ideas without being competitive."

Although Penn State's undergraduate population is three times the size of Tech's, Wandel said observing other programs is about building a basic foundation on which Penn State's concerns can be addressed.

Both schools are members of the National Association of College and University Food Services.

Wandel said instead of starting off from scratch, schools should look at other people's ideas, modify them, and make them even better.

"Instead of recreating the wheel, we can look at what the last guy did, change it and make it our own," Wandel said. "Then someone else can take what we do and do the same thing. Eventually, the original creator can look at what changes it has gone through too and see something that looks completely different from what they started out with."

D2 and West End dining halls are the most popular destinations for visiting delegations. Jessica Filip, training and project coordinator with Dining Services said Penn State officials in particular would start the tour at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m. Excluding Shultz, they will visit all dining halls on campus.

Other than dining halls, Penn State will also visit Southgate Center, a centralized preparation facility for all of the food that students access on campus.  

Lane Stadium is also a planned stop.  The director of concessions at Penn State's Beaver Stadium will be looking at Lane Stadium to see what we offer there.  

In the past five years, over 60 universities have come to see Tech's dining operations. Most often, these schools are remodeling a dining center and comparing what others have done with their facilities.

Both Virginia Tech's and Penn State's dining services are self-operated, not contracted out to a company.

 "(It is) impressive when such large institutions look to Virginia Tech as an example for their services," said Ed Spencer, vice president of student affairs. "It speaks volumes."