Month: April 2025

In 2012, Brandon Busteed of Gallup posed a deceptively simple question to a range of education leaders: What is the ultimate outcome of an education? He received a range of expansive, thoughtful answers. But one answer—delivered by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman—has echoed through my work for years. Kahneman’s response? “To change what you believe.”

That statement, as Busteed reflects in his article A Nobel Laureate’s Mind-Blowing Perspective on the Ultimate Outcome of an Education, cuts deeper than the traditional metrics of academic success. Education is not simply about what students know, but what they come to believe about themselves, others, and their capacity to impact the world. And that belief is forged not just in classrooms or textbooks, but in human connection.

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve spent the last three decades arguing that nowhere is this transformative power more present—or more overlooked—than in campus dining programs. Through the intentional design of Next Generation Dining, built on the framework of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, we’ve learned that dining is not a peripheral service. It is a mission-critical strategy for student development, emotional well-being, and lifelong success.

Belief Begins with Belonging

To believe differently, as Kahneman suggests, students must be emotionally and socially engaged in environments that challenge and support them. Busteed’s Gallup-Purdue Index reinforced this: graduates who felt cared for, mentored, and able to apply their learning in real-world settings were significantly more likely to thrive personally and professionally.

This doesn’t happen in isolation. Belief is a social construct. It requires dialogue, diversity, and relationships. Which brings us to a powerful truth: students don’t meet their lifelong friends, mentors, or future business partners in lecture halls—they meet them over meals.

Yet many campuses still treat dining as a logistical necessity rather than a strategic asset. Hours are limited. Facilities are transactional. Meal plans are confusing. The spaces are sterile. As a result, so many first-year students drift—eating alone, retreating to their rooms, or falling through the cracks of the very community they’re meant to join.

Dining as the Engine of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ is the idea that intentional design—physical, operational, and programmatic—can foster deep and lasting human connection. In the context of dining, it’s about building social ecosystems, not just food courts. It’s about crafting environments where students don’t just eat—they engage, connect, and belong.

Next Generation Dining programs are designed with this in mind. These are not traditional dining halls. They are vibrant, flexible, open spaces where food becomes the catalyst for conversation. Where cultural expression, collaboration, and community collide. Where students encounter unfamiliar worldviews, meet new friends, and build the confidence and social capital that unlock opportunity.

Through this lens, dining becomes the great integrator, cutting across demographics, majors, and identities. It fosters weak ties that often evolve into strong networks—the very kind that help students access the “hidden job market” of personal referrals and informal opportunities after graduation.

Creating Access to the Hidden Job Market

According to research, nearly 70-80% of jobs are never publicly posted. They’re filled through referrals and informal networks—what sociologists call the “hidden job market.” This is particularly important for first-generation students, those from underserved communities, or anyone without preexisting professional connections. They don’t just need information; they need access.

Access is built through relationships, and those relationships are built through shared experience. Next Gen Dining, when designed through the principles of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, levels the playing field. It gives every student—regardless of background—daily, organic access to their peers, faculty, mentors, and even future collaborators.

We’ve seen students meet their future roommates, spouses, co-founders, and employers in these environments. These are not trivial anecdotes. These are defining moments in the arc of a student’s life. And too often, institutions fail to see that the greatest “return on investment” in student success doesn’t come from granite countertops or rooftop lounges—it comes from human connection sparked over shared meals.

A Strategic Imperative for Colleges and Universities

At a time when higher education is facing declining enrollments, mental health crises, and growing public skepticism about ROI, the stakes have never been higher. Schools must find ways to not only attract students, but to retain them, engage them, and prepare them for life beyond the classroom.

Dining programs, when reimagined as vehicles for SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, address multiple pain points simultaneously:

• Increase student retention by fostering belonging in the critical first 45 days.
• Support emotional well-being through daily face-to-face engagement.
• Drive housing occupancy with compelling, community-centered living experiences.
• Fuel academic and career success through mentorship and network-building.

This is not theory—it’s strategy. And it works.

From Belief to Breakthrough

To change what you believe requires more than access to information. It requires environments that demand presence, spark empathy, and invite transformation. A well-designed dining program is one of the few daily touchpoints that reaches every student on campus. That frequency and reach give it unparalleled power to shape beliefs—and lives.

So as institutions continue to invest in student success, let’s not overlook what’s right in front of us. Let’s design dining programs not as afterthoughts, but as the heartbeat of student life. Let’s infuse every aspect—from architecture to programming—with the principles of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.

If Kahneman is right—and I believe he is—then the ultimate outcome of education is to change what you believe. And belief is born from belonging

Let’s start there.

There’s a phrase I often say that makes people smile, pause, and then nod in total agreement “Good comfort food equals happiness, and it is best served warm and often.”

It sounds simple, because it is. But beneath that simplicity is a powerful truth that too many colleges and universities overlook good food isn’t just about calories or convenience. It’s about

human connection, comfort, and community. It’s a powerful strategy, not a service line. It knits emotional infrastructure. And when it’s done right, it changes everything for the better.

As founder of Porter Khouw Consulting and the pioneer of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, I’ve spent over 30 years working with institutions across North America to help them reimagine dining as a transformative force. When you give students access to food they crave, in spaces that invite interaction, you don’t just make them full, you make them feel at home.

Let me show you what I mean.

The Emotional Power of Comfort Food

Let’s talk chicken tenders, poppers, mozzarella sticks, and pizza.

Sure, they’re student staples. But more importantly, they’re social anchors. These foods aren’t just familiar, they’re friendly and familiar. A plate of chicken tenders and fries or jalapeño poppers with ranch dipping sauce is an invitation to stay and share. Mozzarella sticks? Golden, gooey, and practically made for late-night laughs. And pizza and bread sticks, let’s be honest, it’s the global language of togetherness. And, when done right, you are tapping into a lifetime of good memories around birthday parties, family gatherings, hanging out with friends. “It’s home” in your new home away from home.

When we work with universities to create next-generation dining programs, we don’t dismiss comfort food, we elevate it. We make it intentional. That means:

· Late-night hours with poppers and mozzarella sticks -are available when students need a break.

· Build-your-own pizza bars that spark interaction.

· Seating layouts that encourages students to sit, stay, and share instead of eating alone

Comfort food is a tool. It breaks down barriers. It turns strangers into roommates. And when it’s served fresh, hot, and well? It makes people happy.

From Sweet Cravings to Shared Experiences

Now add a make your own hot Belgian waffle with vanilla ice cream.

This isn’t just dessert—it’s celebration on a plate. It’s indulgent, unexpected, and exactly the kind of experience that lifts students out of stress and into joy.

We’ve seen schools build entire events around waffle bars: midterm morale boosters, Sunday brunch specials, or even “Waffle Wednesdays” where students line up for a warm, crispy Belgian waffle topped with a scoop of vanilla, a drizzle of chocolate, some fresh berries, or a swirl of whipped cream.

And it works. Why?

Because food like this turns routine into ritual. When students start saying “See you at waffle night,” you’ve already won. You’ve created tradition, and in our SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ framework, tradition = human connection = retention.

The right food, in the right moment, creates emotional memory and that emotional memory is what helps students connect and stay connected.

The Science of Happiness (and the Business Case Behind It)

There’s real science behind the idea that good food elevates mood. Nutrient-rich meals stabilize blood sugar, improve cognition, and boost serotonin. But more than that, the experience of eating good food, especially with others, triggers dopamine. It literally makes us feel more connected, more content, and more engaged.

Now layer that over the college experience. First-year students walk onto campus overwhelmed and unsure. The first six weeks are critical, what we call the “social integration window.” If they don’t find their people, their place, or a sense of belonging, they drift and they are isolated, but good food in a communal space becomes the emotional magnet that sparks and nutures human connection and strengthens emotional bonds.

We’ve seen this across hundreds of campus engagements: students who dine regularly on campus, in well-designed environments with crave-able food, are more likely to report higher satisfaction, better mental health, and stronger academic performance. These aren’t guesses, they’re consistent outcomes backed by research and real-world data.

And here’s the kicker: good food is good business.

When schools invest in value, quality, variety, flexibility, and environment, they make dining strategic and don’t just make students happy. They improve retention. They boost housing occupancy. They reduce medical and mental health withdrawals. And they increase net auxiliary revenue. In fact, under our no-risk success fee model, we’ve helped institutions increase their food service remuneration by hundreds of thousands, and in some cases, over a million—without spending a single extra dollar upfront.

Happiness Is a Strategy

So, what does this all mean for presidents, CFOs, and auxiliary service leaders?

It means this: stop treating dining like a background operation. Stop focusing only on margins, upfront capital and meal plans. Start focusing on how food affects the student experience. In today’s hyper-competitive, value-driven higher ed market, what students feel on campus often determines whether they stay.

If they walk into a space that smells amazing, with food that excites them, with staff who know their name, and tables filled with students laughing and connecting?

You’ve done more than serve a meal.

You’ve served a memory.

You’ve built a bond.

You’ve created happiness.

And if you have good food—it makes you happy.

When students are happy, they persist. They graduate, recommend your school, and come back as alumni. It all starts with something as simple as mozzarella sticks, as comforting as pizza, and as joyful as Belgian waffles with a scoop of ice cream.

Let’s Build the Future, One Plate at a Time

Higher education is facing seismic shifts: demographic cliffs, declining trust, rising competition. But one thing hasn’t changed, students want to feel like they belong.

When used strategically, food and campus dining is the most powerful tool , on a day-to-day basis, you can develop to deliver that feeling.

So don’t underestimate the plate. Don’t dismiss the tenders. Don’t downplay the power of a waffle bar.

Instead, lean into what we know: If you have good food, it makes you happy. And when you make students happy, everything else gets easier, retention, housing, mental health, academic performance, enrollment, and even your bottom line.

So let’s serve happiness, strategically, intentionally, and one delicious bite at a time.

In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education virtual panel discussion, Scott Carlson hosted a thought-provoking session titled “Designing a Campus for Student Engagement.” I found myself deeply resonating with the conversation, not just because of the incredible insight from leaders like Shari Bax (University of Central Missouri), Lauren Koppel (MSU Denver), and Cooper Melton (Ayers Saint Gross), but because it reaffirmed what we’ve been advocating at Porter Khouw Consulting for decades: the physical and social architecture of a campus must intentionally foster connection—not just convenience.

The panelists confirmed what we already know but must keep repeating: the pandemic didn’t just disrupt learning—it disrupted belonging. The student experience, once defined by informal face-to-face interactions, communal living, and chance encounters, has shifted. In its place, we’ve seen a transactional, tech-driven, and often isolating reality emerge for today’s students.

But what comes next? And how can we design campuses—both physically and programmatically—to pull students back from the edge of disengagement and loneliness?

Let me share my takeaways and build upon them with the SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ lens that’s driven our work across more than 400 campuses in North America.

1. The Isolation Generation Is Real—and They’re Not Coming Back the Same

Shari Bax shared how first-year students entered the University of Central Missouri post-pandemic more isolated than ever. Many had spent their senior year in high school alone, only to arrive on campus to live in single dorm rooms, masked and distanced, in a world that barely resembled the “college experience” they had imagined.

She wisely noted that this is not a temporary blip—it’s a generational shift. Today’s students have been shaped by trauma, by isolation, and by technology that offers the illusion of connection without its substance. I’ve long said that loneliness is the silent epidemic on college campuses—and COVID merely unmasked it.

This isn’t a gap that can be bridged with another app or platform. It requires the kind of intentional, human-first design we call SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™: programming and spaces that aren’t just functional, but deeply relational.

2. Commuter Students Need Social Infrastructure More Than Ever

Lauren Koppel of MSU Denver made a critical point that cannot be overstated: many students, especially those from lower-income backgrounds, are making rational decisions not to engage.

Think about it—when a student has to take two buses and spend $8 on parking for a one-hour event, the ROI must be clear and compelling. What am I getting out of this? How does this serve my academic or professional journey?

This is not apathy. It’s discernment. And it means institutions must earn students’ time and presence.

The solution is twofold:

• Make the value proposition of engagement undeniable.
• Bring the community to them—through tailored, purpose-driven programming embedded in their daily rhythms, and through smart campus planning that reduces barriers to entry (physically and psychologically).

3. Design Spaces That Remove the Option to Opt Out

Cooper Melton’s architectural perspective struck a chord. He described how outdated campus buildings often “sap the energy out” of community simply by allowing students to bypass each other entirely—six entrances to a dorm, corridors that funnel students straight to their rooms, gathering spaces hidden in back corners.

This is where design must become strategic empathy.

At PKC, we’ve long advocated for the reimagining of dining halls, student unions, and residence halls not just as facilities—but as social engines. The goal is not to force interaction, but to remove friction. Or as Cooper put it, to reduce the opportunities for students to avoid each other.

The best campus designs we’ve developed feature clear arrival sequences, central communal zones, inviting furniture arrangements, varied sensory zones for neurodiverse comfort, and unprogrammed open space that still subtly “nudges” interaction.

4. The Most Powerful Day-to-Day and First-Year Strategy: Dining Designed for SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™

Here’s what we’ve found over 30+ years of work on campuses nationwide:

Dining—when designed through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™—is the single most powerful tool on a day-to-day basis for driving student engagement, connection, and emotional well-being.

But even more significantly, it is the single most effective first-year strategy for helping students:

• Establish and nurture new friendship networks
• Experience meaningful face-to-face interaction
• Build emotional security and a sense of belonging
• And ultimately persist through their college journey

This isn’t about transactional dining halls serving reheated meals under harsh lighting.

We’re talking about Next Generation Residential and Retail Anytime Dining, where extended hours, flexible seating, culinary variety, and dynamic programming come together to foster authentic, repeated, unforced social contact.

When done properly, we’ve seen measurable results:

• Retention increases as students find community
• Housing occupancy rises as students choose to stay
• Enrollment improves as persistence grows
• And most importantly, students’ emotional well-being strengthens, driven by the simple but powerful increase in human connection

Dining—when treated as the social infrastructure it truly is—can shift the entire student experience.

5. Start With First-Year Students, and Start Before They Arrive

Both Shari and Lauren emphasized pre-enrollment programming and structured welcome weeks. That’s a great start—but it must go deeper.

At PKC, we’re guided by a powerful data point: the first six weeks of the freshman year are the most critical period in shaping long-term retention, housing occupancy, and emotional wellbeing.

We recommend institutions not just offer early move-in and orientation—but build a multi-week social integration strategy. One that blends:

• First-year exclusive events in key campus spaces
• Peer mentor dining programs
• Involvement fairs integrated into meal hours
• Faculty dinners in residence halls
• And creative micro-events that consistently expose students to each other, not just the campus

6. Inclusion Means More Than Messaging—It’s Environmental

The conversation also highlighted the growing awareness of neurodiversity and the need for inclusive spaces. Design matters. Lighting, acoustics, layout, even restroom privacy—all play a role in signaling who “belongs” in a space.

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ is inherently inclusive when done right. It creates opportunities for all students to find their comfort zone and a path to growth, engagement, and human connection.

Final Thought: What’s the ROI of Belonging?

If you take one idea from this panel and from this blog, let it be this:

Belonging isn’t just a feeling—it’s a strategic imperative.

Students who feel seen, supported, and socially embedded stay enrolled. They thrive academically. They persist. And they become alumni who look back on college not just as a degree, but as a life-defining chapter.

In this era of declining enrollment and deep disconnection, the solution won’t come from gadgets or gimmicks.

It will come from human-centered design, from programming that sparks relationships, and from a commitment to turning every square foot of campus into an opportunity to connect.

That’s SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.
That’s our mission.
And that’s the future of higher education.

 

Interested in how your campus can foster stronger engagement, build social capital, and improve student retention?Let’s talk about your dining strategy—and how we can help you turn it into a social engine.

Federal funding and grants are being frozen, hiring on some campuses is at a standstill, the economy is uncertain, and higher education is under assault. Once again, college and university leaders, especially those responsible for dining, auxiliary services, and business operations, are being asked to do the impossible: maintain excellence, preserve enrollment, and improve outcomes with shrinking resources.

We’ve seen this before at Porter Khouw Consulting (PKC).  Over the past 30 years, we’ve guided hundreds of college and university clients across North America through economic storms, demographic cliffs, and black swan events. And if there’s one truth we’ve learned through decades of crisis-tested strategy, it’s this:

When everything else feels uncertain, your dining program can and must be a stable engine of student success, community connection, and financial strength.

Today’s challenges are real, but so are the opportunities. The colleges and universities that make smart, student-focused, value-driven dining investments now will emerge stronger—not just surviving but flourishing.

The Post-COVID Playbook: Resilience Through Social Infrastructure

COVID-19 didn’t just disrupt dining. It reshaped how we understand its value.

At the height of the pandemic, campuses across the country closed dining halls, reduced hours, and lost critical connection points for students. The impact was swift and severe: declines in student engagement, mental health challenges, retention drops, and increased transfer activity.

But at campuses where dining had already been reimagined as more than just meal delivery, where it was part of the social infrastructure, coming out of COVID, we saw a different story unfold. These institutions were better positioned to adapt. Why? Because they had already built community-centric environments that fostered belonging, conversation, and face-to-face interaction.

That’s not just anecdotal. It’s strategic.

Dining, when designed and operated intentionally, becomes the most powerful tool for addressing what’s really keeping administrators up at night: low retention, housing vacancies, disengaged students, and budget gaps.

The Crisis from Washington: And Why It’s a Wake-Up Call

The ripple effects of fiscal gridlock in Washington are now crashing into college campuses. Federal grants and funding pipelines have stalled, economic forecasts are shaky, most institutions are facing hiring freezes, and every division is being told to “do more with less.”

If you’re a VP of Business & Finance, Auxiliary Services Director, or Dining Executive Director, you already know the drill:

• Operating costs are up.
• Student expectations are higher than ever.
• And your staff is being stretched thin.

The natural instinct during times like these is to cut, pause, or delay.

But cutting services or deferring upgrades in dining is a short-term response that leads to long-term pain, especially when dining plays such a crucial role in shaping students’ first-year experience, social connection, and overall sense of belonging.

This is the moment to invest, not in expenses, but in value.

How PKC Helps You Thrive: Independent. Proven. Risk-Free.

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we don’t just offer recommendations. We deliver results and put our compensation on the line to prove it.

Our industry-first Success Fee Guarantee eliminates financial risk to your institution. Our strategic planning or food service operator selection phases have no fixed professional fees. We’re only compensated if we improve your bottom line. If we don’t, you owe us nothing.

This uniquely positions us as your zealous advocate, not an agent for a food vendor, not a commission-based operator broker, and not a firm that parachutes in and disappears. We’re here to create transformational, actionable, measurable, and sustainable improvements to your dining and auxiliary programs.

The Solution: Next-Generation Residential & Retail Dining Strategies

To navigate and win in today’s turbulent environment, institutions need more than “operational efficiency.” They need a philosophy, a system, and a strategy that drives outcomes from day one.

That’s why we built Next Generation Residential & Retail Dining Strategies rooted in our proprietary framework: SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™.

This model views dining as a dynamic social ecosystem, including food and labor, but also students’ emotional well-being, friendship networks, and success trajectories.

Here’s what sets our approach apart:

1. We Design Dining Programs That Drive Retention

We focus on the first 45 days of the student journey, an essential window determining whether students stay, transfer, or disengage. Dining environments designed to support meaningful interaction and community-building can dramatically increase the likelihood that students feel connected, stay enrolled, and succeed academically. Students don’t leave college; they leave the community.

2. We Optimize Contracts and Reduce Overhead

Our team has successfully renegotiated and restructured hundreds of food service operator contracts to deliver increased remuneration, higher service quality, and reduced risk. Many clients have achieved six- and seven-figure gains without raising costs or eliminating services.

3. We Reinvest in What Matters

It’s not about cutting; it’s about reallocating. We help campuses reinvest in high-impact, low-cost improvements, transforming underperforming dining spaces into engagement engines. From flexible layouts and mobile ordering to destination dining zones and evening and late-night programs, we build dining programs students actually use and love.

4. We Future-Proof Your Auxiliary Revenue

Dining isn’t just about feeding students; it’s about funding your institution. Our strategies align dining with housing, residential life, and retention, directly boosting auxiliary performance and creating consistent, renewable sources of non-tuition revenue.

A Real Path to Real Results

We’ve seen institutions go from multi-million-dollar losses to net-positive positions in under 18 months. We’ve helped campuses turn outdated dining halls into modern, high-traffic social hubs by rethinking how dining can be the heartbeat of the campus.

You don’t need more reports. You need a partner who understands how to transform dining from a cost center into a strategic advantage.

The Bottom Line: Invest in Value, It’s What Creates Belonging

Students don’t just leave because classes are hard or finances are tight. They leave because they don’t feel like they belong. Dining is your most effective, accessible, visible, and frequent opportunity, on a day-to-day basis, to create and nurture friendship networks, community, and meaningful human face-to-face connections.

And connection isn’t just about student success; it’s about institutional resilience.

In chaotic and uncertain times, human connection is your competitive edge.

Let’s stop managing scarcity and start reimagining your dining program by investing in value, emotional abundance, and community.

At this year’s “RFP Anatomy” session, I had the opportunity to challenge a room full of higher education leaders to rethink everything they’ve been told about how to run a food service Request for Proposal (RFP) process. For too long, colleges and universities have treated food service management companies like consultants—asking them what the program should be, when in fact, those companies have a financial interest in minimizing service, reducing labor, and maximizing profit. That’s not partnership. That’s abdication.

We’ve been doing this for more than 30 years. At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve worked with over 400 institutions across North America. We are fiercely independent, fee-based, and committed to one thing: advocating for the student experience and helping institutions regain control of their food service strategy.

This RFP session wasn’t just another overview of timelines and paperwork—it was a call to arms. It was a challenge to universities to own their food service destiny and stop outsourcing the vision to those who profit from the status quo.

Stop Asking the Fox How to Run the Henhouse

Early in the session, I asked attendees a simple question: Would you put Dracula in charge of the blood bank? Or the fox in charge of the henhouse? Predictably, the room laughed and said no. But isn’t that what happens every time a school asks a management company to “help them design the dining program”?

It’s not that contractors are evil. It’s that their goals may not be aligned with yours. They make more money when fewer students participate because they reduce labor and food cost. You, on the other hand, need students to stay on campus, feel connected, succeed academically, and renew housing contracts year after year.

That’s why the most critical mistake schools make is asking contractors to tell them what their program should be. Our philosophy flips that entirely: You define the program. You set the expectations. They tell you how they’ll deliver it.

Ownership = Value = Student Engagement

Let’s talk about value.

It’s not the price of meal plans that makes students bolt to DoorDash. It’s the lack of value. When students are required to buy a mandatory meal plan and feel like it’s a poor deal because of limited hours, menu variety and selection, and/or access, they vote with their feet, and their phones. When students go off campus or use delivery apps to spend their own or their parent’s money on food in addition to the mandatory meal plan they’re already paying for, this is what we call the inferior program penalty.

You can’t fix this with discounts or more branding. You fix it by designing a program students actually want. That means:

• Locations that match student traffic patterns and habits
• Hours that support the rhythm of student life
• Menus with variety, cultural relevance, and inclusivity
• Service models that support community-building and reduce friction

And guess what? Only the university can define that. Not the contractor. Because only you know your students.

Contractors Respond to Risk & Reward

Let me be blunt: Contractors don’t change unless their revenue is on the line.

We’ve seen it time and time again. Contractors only get innovative when they face the possibility of losing business or gaining new business. That’s why our approach is to show them the program vision and say: Here’s what we want. Show us how you’ll deliver it. Or don’t.

We also encourage alternate proposals. If they truly have a better idea, great—put it on the table. But the key is, we’re no longer asking them what we should want. That era is over.

The RFP Process: A Blueprint for Fairness & Clarity

The RFP process we lead isn’t just paperwork. It’s a precision instrument to create transparency, fairness, and ultimately, great outcomes.

Here’s the anatomy of our typical process:

1. Issue the RFP with detailed specifications
2. Host a pre-bid conference to clarify expectations
3. Allow for Q&A so all bidders are informed
4. Receive and evaluate bids
5. Interview finalists
6. Select the provider and negotiate the agreement
7. Sign the contract before beginning transition

The secret sauce? Precision.

We build a financial workbook that includes labor analysis, commissions, capital investments, and buyout language. Every item is transparent and comparable. There’s no hiding behind vague proposals.

And let me say this clearly: The most important factor in a successful operation is not the company. It’s the person they put on your campus. That account manager is the make-or-break difference in your program. You need to know who they are, what their experience is, and how empowered they are to act.

The Land of Yes—and the Contract That Brings Them Back to Earth

During the bidding phase, contractors live in the “Land of Yes.” Almost anything you ask for, they’ll say yes to—until it’s time to sign the contract.

That’s where the rubber meets the road. And that’s why we never recommend a transition to begin before the agreement is finalized and signed. We’ve seen schools burned too many times by promises made in proposals that don’t survive contract negotiations.

What You Can Do Right Now

I didn’t want the session to end without giving people tools. So I offered two things:

1. A free downloadable RFP blueprint that outlines every step of our process. It’s a roadmap you can use immediately to improve your approach.
2. A free book offer that goes deeper into these principles—because food service can and should be a tool for transformation, not just transaction.

Ready to Take Back Control?

If you’re ready to stop letting vendors dictate your campus dining experience and start building a program that fuels connection, retention, and real student success, we should talk.

At Porter Khouw Consulting, we offer a no-risk Success Fee Guarantee for qualified institutions. That means no upfront fees; you only pay if we deliver results. It’s a performance-based partnership designed to eliminate your financial risk and maximize student success and your financial return.

Whether you want the free RFP Blueprint, a copy of the book, or a confidential conversation about your options, we’re here to help you lead with a vision that reflects the unique culture, philosophy, and strategic goals of your campus.

Email us at mporter@porterkhouwconsulting.com Or call 410-451-3617 Let’s schedule a 30-minute strategy call—on us.

It’s your campus. It’s your students. It’s your move. Let’s make sure your dining program reflects that.

There’s an old saying often attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” This phrase has echoed in my mind for decades—not as a quaint aphorism, but as a lived truth that continues to shape my professional journey, our consulting firm’s mission, and the life-changing results we’ve seen for campuses and students nationwide.

At first glance, “luck” might sound like something outside of our control—something random or serendipitous. But in my experience, luck has a direct correlation to effort. Not just any effort—but consistent, strategic, purpose-driven work with an unwavering commitment to innovation, client success, and human connection. That’s where the real magic happens.

And frankly, it’s not magic at all. It’s architecture.

Designing Outcomes Through Relentless Effort

Over 50 years ago, I began my career in food service operations and strategic planning. Back then, I didn’t have the language to describe what I now call SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ – NEXT GEN ANYTIME DINING. But even in those early days, I sensed that dining programs could be far more than just about food—they could be catalysts for relationships, retention, emotional well-being, and academic success.

Of course, creating those kinds of outcomes didn’t happen by accident. It required working harder than the competition. It meant getting up early and staying up late writing proposals and developing strategic plans, flying cross-country to visit campuses most consultants ignored, and listening—really listening—to the unspoken frustrations of students, CFOs, directors of dining, auxiliary service directors, housing and residential life directors, and directors of admissions. And most importantly, it meant attracting and developing a team of seasoned professionals who have become the foundation of our success at Porter Khouw Consulting, Inc.

In hindsight, that “hard work” was the seed of all the opportunities that followed. The more we invested in creating transformative strategies—strategies that focused not on transactional metrics but on curing loneliness, strengthening friendship networks, and elevating the student experience—the more our clients thrived. And the more they thrived, the more “lucky” we seemed.

The Luck of Creating Something That Didn’t Exist—Yet

Back in the early 2000s, no one was talking about curing loneliness and increasing student retention, establishing and strengthening friendship networks, or improving emotional well-being and academic success with next-gen residential and retail 24/7 Anytime Dining programs.

But we were. That’s when SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ – NEXT GEN ANYTIME DINING was born.

It was a disruptive idea: that dining could be a deliberate tool for student success. That how, when, and where students eat could influence whether they find friends, feel connected, and persist in college. We envisioned dining spaces as platforms for social capital—a term few in higher education were even using at the time.

And we did the hard work to validate it: crafting strategic plans, analyzing financials, designing environments, and coaching leadership teams to see dining as an engine for community, belonging, and lifetime success.

Take our Success Fee Guarantee model. Most consultants scoffed at the idea. “Why would you work for free unless you’re desperate?” they’d ask. But we weren’t desperate—we were confident. We had done the homework. We knew our planning strategies worked. And we believed in putting our money where our mouth was.

The result? Hundreds of successful engagements with institutions across North America. And perhaps most importantly, thousands of students who stayed on campus, made friends, and flourished—in large part because we helped make their first six weeks in college count.

Call that luck if you want. I call it vision, grit, and architecture in motion.

Luck Favors the Value Creator

The universe rewards those who create true value. And in higher education today, value isn’t measured solely in retention statistics or financial reports. It’s measured in how students feel, how connected they are, and whether they see a future at your institution.

Our mission has never been just to “improve food.” That’s the baseline. Our true mission—through SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ – NEXT GEN ANYTIME DINING—is to elevate the human experience on campus. We design programs that intentionally create community, fuel face-to-face interaction, and forge the social bonds that carry students through college and beyond.

To build this kind of value, you can’t cut corners. You can’t recycle solutions. You must immerse yourself in each campus, understand its culture, and engineer a plan that links dining to purpose, belonging, and well-being.

That’s hard work. But when you do it right? Doors open. Referrals come. A CFO says, “You helped us solve a student success problem we thought was unsolvable.” Another president says, “You showed us how food could literally change lives.”

And just like that, we get “lucky” again.

Persistence Is Luck in Motion

There have been moments in my career when walking away would’ve been easier—messy campus politics, tight budgets, skeptical stakeholders. But I’ve never seen transformation happen without friction.

And so we stay in it. We don’t just write the plan. We help build the reality—a dining program that doesn’t just feed students, but helps them thrive emotionally, socially, and academically. We design experiences that give students their first chance to belong—and schools a chance to stabilize enrollment and retention through deep, human-centered change.

The results speak for themselves: higher GPAs, full residence halls, and campuses where students say things like, “I made my first real friend at lunch in the dining hall.” You can’t fake that kind of luck.

Hard Work Is the Architect of Legacy

When I look back on more than three decades leading Porter Khouw Consulting, I’m so grateful—not just for the client wins, but even more so for the tens of thousands of students whose lives were touched. I think about the lifelong friendships formed, and the arcs of those lives that were quietly, profoundly, and positively shaped by the subtle yet transformative daily experiences we helped design—experiences rooted in our guiding principle, SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™. We’ve helped institutions reshape their identity through something as seemingly simple—and yet as powerfully human—as food.

But we’re not done. We’re still innovating. Still studying. Still advocating for the full embrace of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ – NEXT GEN ANYTIME DINING as a proven framework to cure loneliness, increase retention, strengthen friendship networks, and boost student success through next-gen residential and retail 24/7 dining programs.

We’re also empowering families and students to choose schools where this experience is prioritized—through tools like ratemyfreshmanexperience.com, which helps measure what truly matters in that critical first year.

And when it comes to luck, I hit the jackpot. Twenty-seven years ago, Cezanne Grawehr arrived from London—our very own version of Mary Poppins—and to this day, she is the glue that holds us all together. I also couldn’t be luckier in life than to work alongside my daughters, Alex and Madison. I started this company when Alex was just one year old, and Madison had not yet been born. Today, Alex is a Vice President at PKC and a Ph.D. candidate at Wayne State University, while Madison recently graduated from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit and now serves as a Sales and Marketing Associate with us at PKC. And my granddaughter? She’s an amazing ray of sunshine. Lucky in business—and even luckier in life.

We are not waiting for luck. We are building it, brick by brick.

Be the Luck You Seek

To anyone facing uncertainty—whether in higher education, business, or life—remember this: Luck isn’t something you find. It’s something you build.

It begins with showing up. Doing the work. Being relentless in your mission. Refusing to settle for “good enough” when you know transformation is possible.

In our case, it meant reimagining dining not as a cost center, but as a strategic asset for curing loneliness and increasing student retention, establishing and strengthening friendship networks, and improving emotional well-being and academic success with next-gen residential and retail 24/7 Anytime Dining programs.

So yes, the harder we work, the luckier we get.
Because we’re not just chasing results. We’re building a legacy.

And that’s the kind of luck that lasts.

In the ever-evolving world of higher education, student success hinges on more than academic performance. Today, colleges must actively nurture environments that help students build social connections, form friendships, and feel a deep sense of belonging. This web of human connection — a student’s Social Biome — is now recognized as one of the most critical, yet often overlooked, contributors to student well-being, retention, and academic success.

 

At the heart of cultivating a healthy Social Biome is SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ — the intentional design of environments that spark human connection. When paired with Next-Generation residential and retail dining programs, SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ creates campus ecosystems where students thrive emotionally, socially, and academically.

What Is a “Social Biome”?

Much like a biological ecosystem, a Social Biome is the network of interactions and relationships that shape a student’s emotional and psychological well-being. It includes:

• Peer networks
• Dorm interactions
• Conversations in dining halls
• Group projects
• Chance meetings at the campus café

Social Biome requires variety (not just depth or frequency) of connection. When students experience different forms of human engagement — casual chats, group bonding, deep friendships — their social ecosystem flourishes. When those interactions are missing, shallow, or siloed, students become socially malnourished, leading to anxiety, loneliness, and attrition.

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™: Designing Connection Into Campus Life

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ is a strategic framework that uses physical space, behavioral science, and emotional design to strengthen students’ ability to connect with one another. It’s the opposite of letting friendships happen by accident. Colleges that embrace SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ create environments where face-to-face connection isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable.

Intentional Design of Spaces

Dorms, dining halls, and study lounges aren’t just utilitarian spaces — they’re community-building tools. SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ promotes:

• Shared kitchens in residence halls
• Communal tables in dining areas
• Multi-use lounges that invite lingering
• “Third places” (not home, not classroom) where casual interaction flourishes

Emotionally Intelligent Environments

Students engage more when they feel emotionally safe and seen. SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ uses lighting, color, furniture layout, and ambiance to lower anxiety and encourage social behavior — especially during the critical first 6 weeks of college when the risk of isolation is highest.

Structured Peer Interactions

Spontaneous connection needs structure. SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ integrates programming like:

• “Floor dinners” in dining halls
• Game nights in common areas
• Late-night breakfast socials during finals
• Dining events that bring together micro-communities (clubs, teams, classes)

These tactics aren’t random. They’re strategic. They engineer the conditions that feed the Social Biome — early and often.

The Role of Next-Gen Dining in the Social Biome

Dining is one of the few guaranteed social rituals on campus. Every student needs to eat — which makes dining venues prime real estate for social connection.

Next-Generation Dining Programs go beyond food quality. They transform mealtime into a social catalyst by focusing on five key principles:

Extended, Flexible Hours

Traditional dining programs typically operate on fixed meal periods, limiting how long students can spend in the space. In contrast, Next-Gen dining programs offer continuous access, aligning with the rhythms of your campus and the unique schedules of today’s students. This supports spontaneity: the unplanned coffee run, the late-night snack with friends, the mid-morning regroup after class. These micro-interactions build friendship networks.

Micro-Restaurants & Decentralized Layouts

Multiple dining venues across campus mimic a city’s food scene. This encourages students to explore different social zones, encounter new people, and form micro-communities around favorite spots.

Design for Social Behavior

Design features such as farmhouse tables, lounge seating, and study pods near dining areas in combination with music, lighting, and atmosphere can signal to students: “stay and connect.” SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ principles come to life in Next-Gen dining environments.

Inclusive, Culture-Forward Experiences

Dining programs now host themed nights, international food festivals, and student-led pop-ups that double as social and cultural touch points. These events create moments of shared identity and bridge social silos.

Residential Requirement + Mandatory Meal Plan = The Most Powerful Social Engine

The most powerful combination on a college campus is a residential life “live-on” requirement paired with a mandatory meal plan. This structure creates the single most potent opportunity, on a day-to-day basis, to cultivate and strengthen healthy student Social Biomes and support student success — more so than any other aspect of campus life.

When organized correctly, this system guarantees daily social exposure, shared mealtimes, and built-in community rituals that reinforce emotional well-being, peer connection, and sense of belonging.

However, if the dining program is not properly organized, it can have the opposite effect — reinforcing isolation, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Poor hours, uninspired food, uninviting spaces, or underwhelming customer service can degrade a student’s Social Biome and become a source of emotional disconnection rather than nourishment.

That’s why designing Next-Gen Dining programs with SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ in mind isn’t optional — it’s mission-critical.

Why It Works: Dining + SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ = A Thriving Social Biome

The synergy between SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ and dining isn’t theoretical — it’s practical, measurable, and transformative. Together, they create a 24/7 infrastructure for human connection. Here’s what that means:

• A student who feels homesick finds belonging in a community meal
• A first-year student meets their best friend at a “Midnight Pancake Night”
• A commuter student stays on campus longer because the café is a hub for peers
• A shy international student connects during a cultural food event

Every one of these moments strengthens the Social Biome — and by extension, the student’s well-being and academic performance.

Results That Matter: Retention, Mental Health, and Student Success

Colleges that adopt SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ and invest in Next-Gen Dining report:

• Higher student retention rates
• Increased housing occupancy
• Improved student GPAs
• Reduced loneliness, anxiety, and attrition

That’s because connection isn’t a luxury — it’s a survival strategy. SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ and dining together form a campus-wide social safety net, ensuring no student falls through the cracks.

Don’t Leave the Social Biome to Chance

Every campus has a Social Biome — the question is whether it’s being cultivated intentionally or left to evolve on its own.

SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ and Next-Gen Dining are powerful tools to help institutions take control of that narrative — transforming dining halls, residence areas, and student commons into platforms for lifelong friendships, emotional resilience, and academic achievement.

Call to Action

Ready to transform your campus dining into a catalyst for student success?

Contact Porter Khouw Consulting today to schedule a free strategic planning consultation. Learn how our SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ framework and Next-Gen Dining strategies can strengthen your students’ Social Biome — and your institution’s future.