Many students have expressed concerns regarding IU Dining wait times, Grubhub issues and food shortages within the residence halls. Members of IU Dining answered student and parent questions Thursday during a webinar moderated by IU Spokesperson Chuck Carney.
One of the most common complaints from students has been long wait times with Grubhub. Ken Field, IU Director of Residential Dining, said one of the main causes of this issue is that students are all ordering at the same time at the beginning of the day.
“When the venue opens we are getting hundreds of orders immediately,” Field said.
Residential Programs and Services Executive Director Lukas Leftwich said if a student experiences a situation where they make an order, the order is paid and they are unable to get that order for whatever reason to reach out to IU Dining and the order will be refunded.
While all venues only took Grubhub last year, some venues are making the change to in-person or hybrid ordering, Rachael McAleer, IU Director of Retail Dining, said.
One of the most popular spots on campus for students to get lunch is the Indiana Memorial Union. This makes it difficult for students to all be served in a timely manner during lunchtime, Leftwich said.
“There is no way we can feed the entire campus out of the IMU at lunch in a 45-minute period,” Leftwich said.
To help the students ordering at Whitfield Grill, the restaurant will be moved to in-person ordering only during the lunch period, McAleer said.
At the beginning of the academic year, The Lantern, located in the IMU, was in-person only. It will now move to a hybrid style for ordering. The Quarry Pie Co has been switched, as of Tuesday, to in-person ordering only. The option for pizza by-the-slice is in discussion to be added as an alternative to ordering a personal pizza, McAleer said.
For students who are concerned they will run out of I-Bucks before the end of the semester due to the All-You-Care-To-Eat program pricing, the dinner price is being eliminated and students will only be charged the lunch price, after the breakfast pricing ends at 10:45 a.m. For I-Bucks 60 plan members the dinner price is 6.39 I-Bucks and the lunch price is 5.19 I-Bucks.
IU will be transitioning to a swipe program for the next academic year. Students with remaining I-Bucks will be notified how these will work within the new program during the transition, Leftwich said.
Leftwich said RPS is currently trying to enhance the relationship with Grubhub to help students have a better experience with the program.
“It was an unbelievable tool as we went into a pandemic last year and as students’ behaviors have changed dramatically as they are back on campus we have to see how students utilize it to best get students fed healthy, great choices in a quick amount of time,” Leftwich said.
