Shaping the Future of Dining Services at MIT

With a goal of offering high-quality and delicious meals that are reasonably priced and accessible from morning until night, the MIT Dining Roadmap will elevate the campus dining program and manage its long-term fiscal sustainability.

Students and members of the MIT community want easy access to great food at a good value, when and where they need it. Building on new and prior reviews of the campus dining program, as well as a range of community engagements and survey data, the MIT Dining Roadmap is taking a solutions-focused approach to identifying opportunities for systems change that will elevate campus dining and better serve the needs of the MIT community.

The Dining Roadmap is a comprehensive, campus-wide initiative. It is led by the Vice Chancellor for Student Life and the Vice President for Campus Services and Stewardship. Working closely with a Dining Advisory Group composed of students, faculty, and administrative staff, MIT leadership is also partnering with consultants who have supported similar projects at institutions around the country. 

MIT offices participating in the Dining Roadmap include:

  • Division of Student Life
  • MIT Investment Management Company (MITIMCo)
  • Office of Campus Planning
  • Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer
  • Office of the Provost
  • Office of the Vice President of Finance

Members of the Dining Advisory Group:

  • Nick Allen MCP ’17; graduate student, Urban Studies and Planning
  • Stephen Baker ’84, MArch ’88, MIT Corporation Member and Member of Corporation Joint Advisory Committee
  • Eugenie Cha ’28
  • Peter Cummings, Executive Director for Administration, Division of Student Life
  • John Fernandez ’85, Professor of Architecture and Director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, Head of House at Baker House
  • Ananda Santos Figueiredo ’25; graduate student, Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Meghan Funk, Project Manager, Division of Student Life 
  • Steve Hall, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Head of House at New Vassar
  • Amy Kaiser, Senior Campus Planner, Office of Campus Planning
  • Janelle Knox-Hayes, Lister Brothers Professor of Economic Geography and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Head of House at Burton-Conner (joined fall 2025)
  • Andrew Mankus, Senior Director of Campus Dining, Division of Student Life
  • Suzy Nelson, Vice Chancellor for Student Life
  • Favour Oladimeji ’24; graduate student, Health Sciences and Technology (joined fall 2025)
  • Camila Pierce ’27
  • Lorenzo Pinton, graduate student, Linguistics and Philosophy
  • Raul Radovitzky, Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Head of House at McCormick Hall
  • David Singer, Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science and Department Head, Associate Head of House at MacGregor House (joined fall 2025)
  • Susan Whitehead, MIT Corporation Member and Chair of Corporation Joint Advisory Committee
Q&A with MIT’s Senior Director of Campus Dining

Dining Roadmap Timeline

Fall 2025

  • Campus survey
  • Focus groups and community engagement
  • Interviews with student leaders from UA, GSC, and other organizations
  • Assessments and analyses of campus dining facilities, operations, and utilization

Winter 2026

  • Evaluations of business and operating models and systems
  • Review of campus density mapping, transaction data, and meal plan usage
  • Analysis of survey data and engagement feedback
  • Identification and evaluation of trade-offs

Spring 2026

  • Sharing findings from Fall focus sessions and survey
  • Developing, iterating, and presenting on short- and long-term steps for Dining Roadmap

Updates

Engagement

  • Fall 2025 campus dining survey
  • Focus Groups: Twelve 45-minute meetings with 46 student participants (graduate, undergraduate, and cook-for-yourself and dining house residents)
  • Discussions with UA, Dormcon, IFC, Panhel, Sloan Senate, chair of the faculty (with additional meetings in the coming weeks)

Communications