Rising number of students spark changes in Ole Miss Dining

This fall may bring many changes for students living both on and off campus at Ole Miss. The rise in student population will ripple across campus, showing effects in various ways.

Students wait in line at the Starbucks in the JD Williams Library. 

Along with the regulation changes in housing and the rather constant change in transportation the rising student population is bringing in a need for more on-campus food options. The logic is simple: more people need more food. 

Ole Miss has experienced a record number of anticipated freshman for the fall semester of 2014. Though the University has experienced many such leaps, this one has been stated to be the largest. The University of Mississippi's Institutional Research and Assessment Center has tracked student population for many years and has seen a steady rise in attendees. 

The Student Union, among other facilities, are already so packed that freshman Ashton Dawes said she does not know how the University can compensate with the rising population.

“There is a constant crowd,” Dawes said. “It’s practically impossible to get anything during the lunch rush between classes.”

Jason Phillips explaining features of the new
Rebel Market. 

The population rise was expected and had been prepared for in the University’s twenty-year plan, Jason Phillips, Director of Operations for Ole Miss Dining said. There are new facilities that will open this fall and many more in the works.

The dining program has only recently become an integrated part of the University’s planning system. Whereas the two used to work independently, they have now made a joint operation in order to keep the students happy and healthy.

The influx has caused the construction and renovation of dining across campus. The opening Rebel Market, a new hub for students, will give many options for dining. 

The Rebel market will also include highly demanded increase in fresh-food options for students. Along with allergen sensitive and gluten or wheat free areas, the new facility will house multiple interchangeable stations for different dining opportunities. This facility is scheduled to come online this fall, just in time for the new students.

Though the induction of multiple new facilities should help stem the traffic around lunchtime, Phillips said, tensions should not be fully eased until 2016, when multiple facilities will be completed.

It will take time to increase the University’s food industry enough to feed the masses that will be flooding onto campus this fall. There has been some dispute about wether or not the University should take such a large amount of students if it is incapable of sustaining them, however, Ole Miss Dining is ready. Are you?