Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping and a New Meal Plan Label, A 1970s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility with All Access Meal Plans
In the 2025 report Making Connections: Student Life by Ayers Saint Gross, one truth is crystal clear: modern campus design must center around connection. But while institutions are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and tens of millions more into sleek, state-of-the-art dining facilities, one critical question is often left unasked:
Are we still running a 1970s dining model inside a 2025 building?
At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve worked with over 400 colleges and universities across all 50 states, throughout Canada, and the United Kingdom. From that experience, one insight has become undeniable:
An outdated dining program will quietly undermine even the most ambitious housing and dining facilities investment.
Dining Isn’t a Service, It’s the Social Epicenter
We pioneered SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ as a guiding principle to our work, to reframe how campus leaders think about dining. It’s not just a space to eat, it’s the campus equivalent of our kitchens at home. A place of comfort, connection, and emotional grounding.
This belief led us to develop PKC NEXT-GEN, a transformational model that turns dining into a strategic engine for student retention, emotional well-being, and housing occupancy. PKC NEXT-GEN makes campuses “stickier” by strengthening the core of student life: connection.
Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping: A 1970s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility
Colleges and universities are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new housing and tens of millions more into sleek, state-of-the-art dining facilities. But behind the stainless steel, reclaimed wood, and Instagram-worthy interiors, many are still running a 1970s dining model inside a 2025 building.
This isn’t innovation, it’s optical progress masking operational stagnation.
The move to All Access Meal Plans is often positioned as revolutionary. But don’t be fooled. An All Access Meal Plan is just one leg of a four-legged student value proposition, and when the other three legs (menu variety & selection by day part, predictability and consistency of menu items and hours of operation) are flawed, the experience is hobbled.
All Access is too often undermined by:
- Limited hours of operation
- A lack of predictable and consistent menu offerings
- Light or restricted meal periods with reduced menu variety
- Meal equivalencies that devalue meal plans and the residential dining experience
- Declining balance that subsidizes on-campus retail and dilutes, not strengthens, richer levels of student engagement and community building through dining
These outdated strategies, rooted in transactional thinking from the 1970s, were designed for cost control, not for connection, inclusion, or emotional well-being. And today’s students can feel the disconnect.
They disengage. They skip meals. They go off-campus. They disconnect from the very community your housing and dining investments were meant to cultivate.
PKC NEXT-GEN replaces these flawed legacy systems with a student-centered model built on flexibility, consistency, and SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, making dining the true social engine of your campus.
The First 45 Days Matter Most
Our research confirms what many student life professionals already know: the first 45 days on campus are a critical window of opportunity. That’s when students form social bonds, build routines, and decide whether they feel like they belong.
Residential facilities provide shelter, but dining facilities foster social interaction. If meal plans are restrictive, food is subpar, or hours are inconvenient, students won’t gather. And if they don’t gather, they don’t connect. And if they don’t connect, they don’t stay.
PKC NEXT-GEN reverses this trend. By designing dining programs that align with student behavior, support emotional well-being, and foster daily social rituals, we help institutions convert their housing investment into actual community.
SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ in Action
You can build stunning residence halls and program endless events, but if students don’t have a place to casually and comfortably connect multiple times a day, engagement falters.
Dining is the ritual. Dining is the rhythm. Dining, crafted through the lens of SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, is the epicenter and nexus of student engagement on a daily basis.
When implemented well, PKC NEXT-GEN becomes the foundation for:
- 3 to 15 percent increases in fall-to-fall student retention
- Higher housing occupancy rates
- Improved mental health and wellness metrics
- Stronger friendship networks
- Higher average GPAs
This isn’t theory, it’s measurable impact across real campuses.
Anytime Dining = Anytime Belonging
A core component of PKC NEXT-GEN is Anytime Dining:
Unlimited access, takeout flexibility, extended hours, and diverse food stations that serve students on their time, not institutional schedules.
Dining should feel like freedom, not a restriction. Students thrive when they can flow naturally from classes to meals to study to social interaction, without worrying about swipe limits or closing times.
When dining is that seamless, students stay on campus, linger longer, and feel like they belong.
Design and Programming Go Hand in Hand
PKC NEXT-GEN doesn’t stop at operations. It also transforms physical spaces into social catalysts:
- Natural light, clear sightlines, and open kitchens
- Quiet zones for neurodiverse students
- Inclusive seating for small groups and large gatherings
- Integrated technology for mobile ordering and feedback
- Events that bring students together over food
Dining halls should be places students want to be, not places they endure.
A Strategic Blind Spot in Campus Master Planning
Too many institutions are pouring hundreds of millions into new buildings while leaving their dining philosophy stuck in the past. Beautiful facilities with old-school service models are a flawed combination.
If you’re spending $400 million, $600 million, or $800 million on new housing and dining complexes but still operating with a traditional food court or outdated swipe plan, you’ve created a disconnect that students feel immediately.
Dining is not a cafeteria service. It is mission-critical infrastructure for retention, engagement, and campus culture.
Don’t Be Fooled by the Wrapping and a New Meal Plan Label, A 1970’s Dining Model in a 2025 Facility with All Access Meal Plans.
You can’t build 21st-century student life on a 20th-century dining model.
Dining must be modernized in tandem with facilities, with a strategic lens focused on human connection, emotional well-being, and social capital. That’s what PKC NEXT-GEN delivers. That’s what SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ demands.
If you want your next capital investment to truly transform your campus, start not just with where students sleep, but where they connect.
