IUP Dining: A Broad Array of Little Options
Welcome to IUP Dining: A Broad Array of Little Options. Our main goal is to bring forward the problems with our on campus dining options. We only have 3 different dining places for during the day but the main problem is that none are open after 7:30pm.
North Dining Hall
The North Dining Hall features a buffet style that presents many food options for students. The Dining Hall features a large international station with traditional cooking styles including a tandoori oven, sushi and traditional oriental wok set, an open pit barbeque, deli, vegan & vegetarian, comfort foods, bakery, salad bar, crepe station and homemade gelato complete the lineup. A variety of different seating options can be found inside. While there are many pros to this dining hall, the hours of operation could be slightly enhanced. On weekdays the hall closes at 7:30 and on weekends at 7:00. If students eat a late lunch, they may not be hungry again until after the dining hall is closed. This causes many problems considering that this buffet is one of the most generous locations when it comes to late night dining.
Crimson Café
The Crimson Café consists of a multitude of differing eating options within the building, including that of The Fireplace Brick Oven Pizza, Cheese Please, Burger Studio, and Starbucks. While many of these places accept meal swipes, many of the items on the menu require an extra couple of dollars to be used through flex. In addition, Cheese Please and Burger Studio are only provided through pickup orders on the Grub Hub app, preventing students the option of ordering in person. While this initially does not seem like a problem, one must consider that it is very possible for a student's order to be stolen from them if they are not present to pick it up when it is ready.
A popular choice within this establishment is Starbucks, which unfortunately does not accept Starbucks gift cards. This is a real bummer, as those that get gift cards for this location on Christmas, or any other holiday will have to locate another Starbucks to utilize the card.
Along with the other dining options on campus, the hours of operation become a problem. On weekends, The Crimson Café is completely closed which eliminates many dining options on campus for students during this time. In addition to not being open on weekends, the café closes at 7 o’clock on weekdays and as early as 4 pm on Fridays. These hours could be expanded upon to accommodate for those that are strictly using their meal plan and are tired of the North Dining Hall.
The HUB
Among the dining options within the Hawk HUB lie the chain restaurants of Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and Einstein's Bros Bagels. These are great choices of food and drinks on stressful days of class, but there are problems to be noted. The HUB location is one of the places on campus in which meal swipes are not accepted. Instead, students will have to use up their flex or other forms of currency to purchase items here. That being said, there have been times where Chick-fil-A and Starbucks have accepted meal swipes, but they are much too short and too random for students to make use of them. These instances in which meal swipes are accepted only last for about an hour during times when students are in class and often too late for some to enjoy lunch and too early for dinner. To fix this, these periods could be extended from say 2-3 pm to 11:30-4 pm, as it would allow more students to take advantage of these opportunities. In addition to this, Chick-fil-A also does not accept Chick-fil-A gift cards or reward points.
Folgers Late Night
Folgers Late Night suffers from a similar issue that the Crimson Café does. While it is a great option for those night owls that want to eat late, the hours are very limited. It is only opened for business on class nights, preventing those that visit much time to enjoy themselves before having to head back to their dorm to rest. On top of this, many of the filling food options at Folgers are expensive and require more than just a $6.00 meal swipe.