Final Reccomendation Report PDF

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Fall of 2018. Earned an A. Discussed on-campus dining services and how it influenced the student body....

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Boise State University 1910 W. University Drive Boise, ID 83725

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April 30, 2018 Justin Lord Food Services Director at Aramark Boise State University ANON, Student at Boise State University ANON, Student at Boise State University ANON, Student at Boise State University Recommendation Report for Revision in Quality of Dining Services at Boise State University

Attached is the report for our study “Revision in Quality of Dining Services at Boise State University: A Recommendation Report.” We have conducted and completed the tasks that we presented to you on March 25, 2018 which included: Conduct a survey on issue of campus dining, conduct research to understand the dining services offered, conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with BSU dining services catering to their restrictions, evaluate what could be changed at BSU, and analyze our data and prepare a recommendation report. To execute these tasks effectively, we conducted studies and surveys we personally generated as well as gather analysis of other data that is already provided online or through other secondary outlets. We gathered information from other university services’ dining sites and cross-referenced information we gathered from Boise State’s dining services website with other universities’ dining service sites. Our main findings indicated that the Boise State University student body, for the majority, is somewhat unsatisfied with the meals that on-campus dining services provides, with a high unsatisfactory rate towards the Boise River Cafe specifically and a small handful of the dining services in the Student Union building and the Interactive Learning Center. These concerns are reflected by students who have dietary restrictions and students who live on campus and oncampus dining is one of their only ways to acquire a meal. As a team who has experienced this quality of dining first-hand, we agree that the on-campus dining services has the potential to increase the quality in nutritional value and meal options.

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Although the allocation of finances towards on-campus dining could become a concern, we have proposed a recommendation that discusses a proposition to work on an finance chart which will potentially heighten the quality and nutritional value of on campus dining in the cafeterias on campus. We also proposed a price change in meal plans as another recommendation. This results in allocation of money and what the finances are geared towards. We appreciate the consideration you have given this report in which our hard work and research is reflected. We greatly look forward to working with you on any follow-up work. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to contact Sydney Nickel at [email protected], Ryan Van Buren at [email protected], or Ashley Moisan at [email protected].

Revision in Quality of Dining Services

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at Boise State University: A Recommendation Report

Prepared For: Justin Lord Food Services Director at Aramark Boise State University Prepared by: Ashley Moisan, Student at Boise State University Ryan Van Buren, Student at Boise State University Sydney Nickel, Student at Boise State University

April 30, 2018

Boise State University 1910 W. University Drive Boise, ID 83725 Abstract “Revision in Quality of Dining Services

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at Boise State University: A Recommendation Report.” Prepared by: Ashley Moisan, Student at Boise State University Ryan Van Buren, Student at Boise State University Sydney Nickel, Student at Boise State University In early spring of 2018, a research group comprised by students was asked to investigate the current status on campus dining at Boise State University. The researchers wrote a proposal which was quickly accepted and started the work on a project to find a better way to serve the needs of student nutrition in the Boise campus. They broke into 6 tasks to be completed, each with the intent of uncovering questions about the food. They began by surveying the students for their opinions of the food on campus. A survey questionnaire was drafted and sent to the student body for gathering information on how the dining on campus was liked. The surveys turned up data that proved the student body at Boise State was less than pleased with the dining on campus. The next task comprised of research to what food was being served as well a background check on the company that provides the food service. A second survey was then devised and sent among mobile devices to gather information on how certain dietary restrictions can coexist with the dining options provided by Boise State. In this survey, it was shown that Boise State student were limited in options if they has a type of allergy or intolerance. The next task was first to analyze what has been found in the research and surveys. The research team had all the data and compiled it to find out what it all meant. The data pointed toward Boise State University needing to make a change in order to keep up with modern universities and providing the best options for their student body. The next step was to prepare a recommendation for a course of action to be taken. When considering the data and analyzing what it means, the recommendation was to either 1: Change the price of each meal to provide higher quality food, or, 2: Reallocate funds to put more money into the dining service. The aim of the project was to help the student body of BSU by providing them with options of the best nutrition while keeping meals tasteful and convenient. If the suggested recommendations are adhered to, the research team is confident the quality of food will increase along with the satisfaction of the student body.

Keywords: Boise State, Nutrition, Dining on Campus, food, diet, healthy eating, college nutrition, student surveys

Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………

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Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………. Research Methods……………………………………………………………………………... Task 1. Conduct a survey on issue of campus dining………………………………………. Task 2. Conduct research to understand the dining services offered……………………….. Task 3. Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with BSU dining services catering to their restrictions…………………………………………... Task 4. Evaluate what could be changed at BSU………………………………………….... Task 5. Analyze our data and prepare a recommendation report………………………….... Results………………………………………………………………………………………….. Task 1. Conduct a survey on issue of campus dining………………………………………. Task 2. Conduct research to understand the dining services offered……………………….. Task 3. Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with BSU dining services catering to their restrictions………………………………………….. Task 4. Evaluate what could be changed at BSU………………………………………….... Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………….. Conduct a survey on the issue of on campus dining………………………………………... Conduct research to understand the dining services offered………………………………... Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions…………………………………... Evaluate what could be changed at BSU……………………………………………………. Recommendation……………………………………………………………………………….. References………………………………………………………………………………………. Appendix: Survey Results……………………………………………………………………...

Executive Summary To determine the best way to implement healthier and more nutritious dining on Boise State University’s campus, Justin Lord, Director of Aramark in Boise, Idaho, requested for us to crossexamine dietary trends in other universities and obtain data on individuals who have dietary restrictions. We were also asked to gather information on the physical Boise State student body and what they thought of the dining services on campus.

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As of right now, Boise State University has not openly taken initiative to implement changes or revisions in the dining services on campus in the year 2018. Mr. Lord proposed that we figure out the best way to provide the Boise State campus with healthier meal choices by conducting the research that we provided later in the report. This information provided us with the basis on what the dining services needed to improve on and where the problems mostly lie. To carry out this research we created five tasks to complete, while staying in budget. We used emails and mobile devices for one of the surveys and networking to gather information on diets of people in the most cost effective ways. We then researched other universities and cross referenced them with Boise State University to find the what needs to be changed. After gathering all of this information we surmised that Boise State needs to make changes to the on-campus dining. The student body is dissatisfied with the way things are and the research proves that. BSU has fallen behind competitive universities and will need to make strides to close the gap. We recommend one of two changes requesting to be made to on-campus dining services: Reconsider the price of meals served on Boise State University’s campus or reconsider the allocation of finances within the university dining services. We believe that reconsidering the allocation of finances within university dining services is the best option for this project because it would be more beneficial to move finances and numbers around rather than changing the entirety of a section of Boise State University cost of attendance.

Introduction To determine the best course of action for BSU to better the dining services for the students, Justin Lord, Food Service Director of Aramark, has granted our team permission to research the dining services on the BSU campus and present our findings and recommendation. Currently, BSU has had various complaints about the lack of healthy eating on campus and we have decided to research what can be improved. At BSU there are many different dietary restrictions that the dining services do not accommodate for. For students who live on campus

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and off-campus, this can severely impact the academic success. By neglecting to explore what can be improved, there is potential that the academic success could be declining, as well as student well-being. Therefore, Justin Lord has given us permission to determine the best options for BSU to improve the dining services. We have specifically been granted to complete the following tasks: · Conduct a survey to gain a basic understanding of how the Boise State Student Body feels on the issue of on campus dining. · Conduct research to understand the dining services offered. · Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with Boise State University dining services catering to their restrictions. · Evaluate what could be changed at BSU to better accommodate the students. · Analyze our data and prepare a recommendation report. We found that a majority of students admit to struggle finding food options that accommodate their dietary restrictions and that at other universities there are nutritionists to counsel students to make healthy eating choices. As a team we recommend reconsidering the financial allocations within the dining services to better the dining services without charging the students more for each meal plan. Another option we have decided could better the BSU dining service is to reconsider the price of each individual meal, this can be put toward bettering the food provided. In the following sections, we have provided additional details of our research methods, the results obtained, conclusions of the research results, as well as our recommendation. Research Methods In the Spring of 2018, our research group was given the green light to research the dining services on BSU campus. After various complaints about the lack of healthy options and the claims that Boise State falls behind other schools in their dining services, our group was tasked with researching and finding out what can be done to make the campus a healthy and abundant place to learn. To do this we had to formulate a schedule complete with five tasks that would enable us to give an informed recommendation on what needs to be done. To gather the information our research group broke up to complete six tasks of the following: 1.) Conduct a survey to gain a basic understanding of how the Boise State Student Body feels on the issue of on campus dining. 2.) Conduct research to understand the dining services offered 3.) Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with Boise State University dining services catering to their restrictions 4.) Evaluate what could be changed at BSU to better accommodate the students 5.) Analyze the data and prepare a recommendation report.

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Task 1. Conduct a survey to gain a basic understanding of how the Boise State Student Body feels on the issue of on campus dining. In order to fully understand the way the dining on campus affects students and if the problem can be reasonable fixed, we must first grasp how the student body feels toward the issue. An anonymous survey will be sent out and students from across campus will weigh in on how the dining affects their lives and whether or not they think the current dining is adequate. Questions When coming up with a survey and its questions, our research group wanted to create questions that would give us clear data on how students felt on issues, while still providing an easy survey that volunteers would find quick and easy to take. To do this we broke the series of questions into two main categories: Qualifications, and food quality. The qualifications section was mostly simple questions meant to ensure the pool of students being surveyed has actual experience with BSU and the cafeteria. We wanted the statistics pulled from this survey to be from students who attend BSU and dine at the Cafeteria. We then asked questions regarding the quality and availability of food. We used language that would be easy to understand for some student who do not have extensive experience in nutrition. In order to pull a workable pool of statistics from the survey, we designed the questions to be answered in 2 ways; either a “YES or NO” or “NEVER, SOMETIMES, MOST OF THE TIME, OFTEN, or EVERY MEAL”. With these options, we can pull data from the returned surveys and have a good idea on the way the student body feels about the cafeteria. The survey and its results can be found in the Appendix. Task 2. Conduct research to understand the dining services offered To gather information on the served food at the Boise State University Cafeteria, we had to buckle down and do some old fashioned research. We found information on the university website that detailed what is served on a day to day basis. We then researched other schools in the area to compare what they provide as well as some of the Cafeterias of the top schools in the nation. We cross referenced this information with what the contracted food services provider claims to serve as well as unbiased reviews on their company to get a clear understanding as to what the BSU students had available when it came time to eat.

Task 3. Conduct a survey regarding students’ dietary restrictions and their satisfaction with Boise State University dining services catering to their restrictions. On April 17th, 2018, our team reached out to the Boise State University Class of 2020 Facebook page and the Alpha Xi Delta sorority page with a four question Qualtrics survey for individuals who have dietary restrictions and currently attend Boise State University. The survey included questions in the format of short answer responses and a matrix survey. The description attached to the survey provided the information that the survey was specifically targeted towards

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individuals with dietary restrictions who have eaten at one or more than one of the Boise State University on-campus dining establishments. We decided to publish this survey to multiple online outlets in order to gather information from a multitude of different populations. These populations included individuals who currently live or have lived on Boise State University’s campus. Acquiring information from these populations provides a varied analysis to prevent the data from being too uni-populated. While we did have varied populations answer the survey, the free response questions presented a different scope of answers, which was to be expected. We realized that every individual was going to have a different experience at the on-campus eating establishments at Boise State University and wanted the survey takers to express their opinions and experiences freely. Not all responses are going to be useful, either. We had to omit answers of individuals who stated they did not have dietary restrictions but proceeded to answered the survey. We decided to conduct a survey catered only to individuals with dietary restrictions because about 1 in 25 people have a dietary restriction or food allergy (Collins, 2012). This makes up a large amount of the student body. We field tested the survey with five students, two students who used to live on campus and three who currently live on campus. We asked for feedback on the quality of the questions, made changes, and then distributed the survey to the online Boise State University Facebook groups for students to answer. The Qualtrics survey (including the responses) appears in the Appendix on page _____. Task 4: Evaluate what could be changed at BSU to better accommodate the students. To continue our analysis of the BSU dining services, we researched the top university dining services to look at what is so successful at those universities compared to BSU. We looked at three different aspects of the dining services: cost of meal plans, nutrition options, and accessibility to students. We began with looking at the costs of meal plans and individual meals at other universities including Stanford University and University of Georgia compared to BSU. We conducted this research primarily online by looking at the university websites and dining services websites to compare costs. To look at the nutritional varieties, we found an average menu at the main cafeteria of each university and looked at the aspects of each and what was offered. Finally, we researched how accessible each dining option was—including hours of operation and location on campus. We realized as we continued, that comparing BSU to the University of Georgia was not as effective as comparing to Stanford University. After completing this research, as a team we concluded that cost and nutrition we the important factors of dining services, however location on campus was not as critical to the quality of dining. We then compared our research to the BSU dining services to conclude what was working and not working on the BSU campus.

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Task 5: Analyze the data and prepare a recommendation report Our team drafted this report on a Google Document after analyzing the data. We have also submitted it to our colleagues for revision and have taken into consideration the suggestions we received. We then resubmitted it for final editing suggestions and revised it by incorporating most of the suggestions. Results The following section will explain the results found in each of the research tasks. We have compiled to most important and pertinent information to each task. Task 1. Conduct a survey to gain a basic understanding of how the Boise State Student Body feels on the issue of on campus dining. This survey was printed out handed out to students on campus. An estimated 2,000 people received the survey, but only about 1,600 were actually able to respond with answers we could work with. When going over the data pulled from the survey, we encountered a general distaste for the dining services on BSU campus. The students were particularly hard on the Cafeteria on BSU grounds. Most of the students surveyed ate regularly on at the cafeteria. With 74% of the students sur...