By BILLIE CHADDERDONE, DAVID OLEJNIK, AND ANGELICA SHERER, NEWS3 Guest Reporters
MACOMB, Illinois (NEWS3) — Western Illinois University’s changes to the University Union food court has revealed a disconnect between faculty and student opinions.
Despite the university’s beliefs that the changes are positive, some students are not enjoying the change from Einstein’s to Starbucks.
“Honestly, I feel like it would’ve been better if we had Einstein’s because it was actual breakfast food,” one student said.
Another WIU student mentioned the inability to use Starbucks Reward Points at the Union.
According to Union Director Ashley Katz, the change from Einstein’s to Starbucks was a decision made to refresh the student union.
“It really just gave us a fresh new look, in addition to the Chick-fil-A addition a couple years ago, for the entire food court space,” Katz said.
After Burger King’s decision to leave the food court last year, the Union was short one restaurant during the 2020-2021 school year. Katz says that the addition of Qdoba, based on a student survey, has been met with generally positive feedback.
“We did get a lot of feedback about Chipotle being in that space, so we really worked with Sodexo and what they could do in terms of platforms, and that’s how we landed on Qdoba, which has been a great success so far,” Katz said.
