Dining on campus over the weekends changed in the Fall 2025 semester. With the Hillcrest dining hall closed over the weekends and Vandenberg closing at noon, resident students and commuters who attend campus on the weekends find themselves dining at the Oakland Center — a point of controversy.
As the primary dining location over the weekend, students with a meal plan can use meal swipes — also known as transfer meals — to eat at the Pioneer Food Court.
“Grizzly Street Subs and The Bistro Grille will be open both Saturday and Sunday, Halal Shack will be open Saturdays and Slim Chickens will be open on Sundays,” the OU Eats team wrote on their website.
In that same portal, OU Eats explains that a single meal swipe can buy the following items:
- Half sub or salad w/ chips, cookie, or fruit and a fountain drink at GS3
- Small bowl and fountain drink at Hallal Shack
- Any entree, side and fountain drink at The Bistro Grille
- 3-Piece tender meal, 5-piece tender bites meal, chicken sandwich meal or a tender mack bowl at Slim Chickens
“It’s really trying to find that balance of providing the best service that we can that meets the most needs, while also trying to enhance the student experience on campus,” Chris Reed, Oakland Center’s executive director, said. “Students know [the OC] is a place to congregate. So if we do food here, the hope is that we start to see that engagement continue seven days a week.”
The change had been in the works since the campus master plan was launched last year, when the intention of centralizing campus dining sparked conversations about food costs.
“When we look at it, it probably costs less when it’s a meal swipe,” Reed said regarding the cost of the specified meals at the OC over the weekend. “We only do the meal swipes for the residents’ meal plans on the weekends because we give them the declining dollars.”
The flexibility and affordability projected by the university are not perceived in the same manner by some students who are not satisfied with the change from the prior buffet-style dining options.
“We need a buffet style because we’re spending more money using double swipes in the shops here, instead of using one swipe to get a full meal like we would have been at Vandy,” Alex Lakin, a junior student athlete, said. “I’d like to see bigger portions for one swipe instead of using a double swipe to get a full meal.”
The change has been perceived not only by students but also by the staff working at the food court. Levi Hardy, driver, baker and food prep staff, explained that while the change has been beneficial for him and his team, there is room for improvement.
“As a worker, it’s very welcomed because, you know, if we don’t have the hours that we need, it gives us the opportunity to work full time,” Hardy said. “In regards to the weekends, we don’t change a whole lot, but we do have to explain much about how the meal system works, because I still think I occasionally get a couple of new people who haven’t been and haven’t used a single swipe yet.”
While many students complain that the change in dining options was not communicated with them, university housing sent out an email to resident students at the beginning of the semester to explain the change. Even after communicating with students, more adjustments are still in the works.
“Some buttons need to be programmed again, because there’s a lot of programming that they’re doing with the registers,” Hardy said. “There are also some things that are a little bit more murky that you can’t do and some of that has been changed and we’ve been adapting to it like any add-ons.”
As more complications are ironed out and students get used to the new weekend dining options, the campus community awaits to see how dining will change with the winter months.
