4. Be inventive when seeking student feedback
Students are inundated with surveys, noted several of the foodservice directors at the “Turn your Department into the Shining Star on Campus” symposium. As an alternative, one participant polls student employees of dining services to get feedback on the program, while another holds “office hours” in the dining hall to invite comments.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., chefs come out into the dining hall in street clothes and sit with students to get immediate feedback on a particular menu item, said Naomi Carton, the school's associate dean of residential life and dining. Another tactic—tap the most vocal complainers and empower them to champion the dining program; they often turn out to be the best ambassadors, agreed several attendees.