Student success isn’t just about academics—it’s about connection. A thriving Student Social Biome is built through daily interactions in residence halls, dining spaces, and common areas. Enter SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™—a strategic approach to designing campuses that foster meaningful relationships. When paired with Next-Gen Dining, which transforms meals into social experiences, this approach strengthens student well-being, retention, and success. From communal tables to late-night breakfast socials, intentional design fuels belonging. The question isn’t whether your campus has a Social Biome—it’s whether you’re cultivating it for student success.

College dining should be more than just meals—it should be a hub for connection and belonging. At Porter Khouw Consulting, our SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™ approach transforms dining into a powerful tool for student well-being, fostering friendships, resilience, and engagement.The First 45 Days are critical for student retention. Our Next Gen Dining Programs create intentional experiences—small-group meals, cultural storytelling, and community events—that help students find their place.
When dining is designed with purpose, it drives success. Let’s reimagine campus dining together.

If you don’t tell your story, someone else will—and they won’t get it right. Campus dining programs offer immense value, yet too often, their impact goes unnoticed. Through SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE™, dining can become more than just a meal—it can be a platform for connection, culture, and student success. From engaging staff as storytellers to leveraging student voices and showcasing the real value of meal plans, strategic storytelling is essential. By crafting authentic narratives, dining programs can increase engagement, drive participation, and reshape perceptions.Want to turn your dining program into a story worth telling? Read more to learn how.

If you were at NASPA 2025’s Opening Keynote, you felt it: the tension, the urgency, the hope—and most importantly, the community. Whether you were nodding along with Dr. Amelia Parnell’s deeply personal reflections or digesting the clear-eyed analysis of the state of our profession, one message rang clear: we are in the midst of profound […]

Selecting a college goes beyond academics and rankings—it’s about finding a community where you can thrive. RateMyFreshmanExperience.com offers real student insights into campus life, social dynamics, and support systems, helping prospective students make informed decisions. Through authentic reviews and comprehensive overviews, this platform empowers students to choose a college that aligns with their personal and social needs

With more students commuting, seeking off-campus dining options, or feeling disconnected from their institutions, colleges and universities must reimagine how they structure the student experience. The first six weeks of a student’s college journey are critical—if they don’t form strong connections, they are far more likely to leave. Dining, as the most frequented campus space, offers the greatest opportunity to foster engagement and retention.

Nicholas Kristof has argued that if we want to address the mental health crisis among college students, we need to go beyond band-aid solutions. We need to reimagine the college experience as one centered around human connection.¹ This means designing campuses that prioritize communal spaces, investing in dining programs that bring students together, and recognizing that the most important education students receive may not be in the lecture halls, but in the moments they share with one another over meals, coffee, and conversation.

Higher education faces declining enrollment and rising mental health challenges. The key to retention may be hiding in plain sight—dining. Dining is one of the few universal student touchpoints. When designed intentionally, it fosters social connections, emotional well-being, and academic success. Research shows that friendships formed in the first six weeks of college predict long-term retention. Next-gen dining reimagines meal programs as hubs for interaction, transforming them from transactional spaces into community anchors. By investing in dining as a social infrastructure, colleges can boost retention, engagement, and student success—one meal at a time.

Many colleges assume self-operated dining means sacrificing the bulk discounts, rebates, and cost efficiencies enjoyed by large food service providers. But is that really the case? In our latest blog, we break down how self-op programs can leverage Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), direct supplier negotiations, and strategic procurement models to close the pricing gap—without giving up operational control.

Should your campus self-operate its dining program or contract with a food service provider? While self-op offers flexibility and control, it demands strong leadership, financial planning, and operational discipline. At Porter Khouw Consulting, we’ve developed The Porter 10X Self-Op Promises—a framework ensuring self-op dining thrives, not just survives. In this blog, we outline the essential commitments every self-op institution must make for success.