Auburn's dining services are bringing new additions to campus with money from leftover Tiger Card dollars.
Students can expect new options like: Joann's home-style cooking, with its expansive salad options; Chick-n-Grill's three new Greek options; two new food trucks; a gelato station next to Caribou Coffee in the Village; and additional Asian and home-style options in the Village.
Future dining options will arrive on campus with the help of a leftover Tiger dollar balance of $376,295.
Compared to the rest of the country, Auburn students leave an average of just 2.4 percent of their meal plan dollars for dining services at the end of the year, compared to the national average of 10 percent.
John Waggoner, interim dining director, said the money will be applied toward debts related to Tiger Dining.
"When we borrow money to build the dining services, we have to pay a monthly fee," Waggoner said. "This monthly fee includes upgrading new facilities, adding new programs, power bills and lots of other sections."
Auburn is dealing with approximately $12 million of debt from building the Village Dining Hall and $6 million in debt for the restaurants in the Student Center.
"We use whatever revenue from the (Tiger dollars) sweep to go back to paying for the dining experiences," Waggoner said.
These changes were made to make the campus more appealing to students, Waggoner said.
"If dining is offered on campus, it makes the students more likely to sit and eat a sandwich and study rather than leave campus," Waggoner said.
Waggoner said the two ways to increase graduation rates for a university is to either require students to live on campus or require students to have a meal plan.
"Studies show that students who live and eat on campus will perform better in their classes and graduate in a reasonable time," Waggoner said.
Auburn chooses to have students receive a mandatory meal plan each semester rather than mandatory on-campus housing.
Auburn's dining services wanted students involved in more meal plan decisions, so they held a competition on their Facebook page to name the new Asian and home-style station in the Village.
Students voted for their favorite restaurant title submitted by other students. The winning name, "Tiger Walk," was submitted by Corey Berger, second-degree nursing student.
SGA was also involved with the new dining options on campus.
"SGA helped created the menu, the name and the feel of the location for Joann's in the Student Center," said Gina Groome, marketing director for dining services. "Everything is very student-driven."
Dining services is all about receiving feedback from the student body.
"I just hope the things that people don't like they will let us know about," Waggoner said.
The new food trucks added to campus place traditional sides into a new light.
"Mighty Meatballs and Mac the Cheese are the new food truck options on campus this fall semester," Groome said. "Mighty Meatballs offers all different types of meatballs, from vegetarian to traditional style. Mac the Cheese's cook makes his own variety of sauces daily."
The future holds more than just the Lowder lounge and frozen yogurt station.
A wellness-dining kitchen will be added to campus next fall near the new athletics complex being built across from Plainsman Park. A training table to provide athletes with the right food to eat while training will be available, as well as gluten-free and other special dieting options for students who need to be more careful with what they eat.
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