“Donut Day?” “Cold Brew Mondays?” “TikTok Night?” These events mean little to those who don’t frequent Wofford’s Burwell Dining Hall. However, to many students, these mealtime holidays can be the shining beacon in Wofford’s limited meal options.
With the recent buzz of the Chick-fil-A closure in Zach’s at the end of the academic year, Wofford AVI Foodsystems has gained some negative attention. With already only a meager three on-campus dining options, relatively few compared to larger colleges, students were rightfully disappointed to learn they would soon be missing a beloved spot. However, this incident is overshadowed by the persistent efforts of AVI and Burwell staff this semester.
Recently, it seems that the Burwell calendar has been fuller than ever of special events and items. Not only is the menu keeping students on their toes, the increased social media presence for AVI at Wofford makes students more eager than ever for their next meal swipe.
So who is behind these enthusiastic and creative efforts? Keith Tyger, resident director of culinary services at Wofford, shares that a lot of these ideas come from their staff, but now more students than ever are engaging with their team.
Tyger expressed that a longtime struggle for food services at Wofford has been communicating with and getting feedback from the student body. However, at the beginning of this semester, he made a crucial change that has alleviated this problem.
Like many modern-day solutions, Tyger sought to widen this pathway of communication and engagement through the internet, taking on students to run AVI’s social media accounts for Wofford.
One of these students is Jenna Huser ‘29, who shared she first learned of this opportunity when Tyger came to speak to her FYI class. She was curious about the position; as a freshman, she was unfamiliar with many of Wofford’s on-campus jobs, let alone for the dining hall. However, she claims that so far, the job has been a great fit.
“I thought it would be something that taps into things I already like to do, like creating posts and event planning,” Huser said.
Tyger shares that he and his team are used to working with students and putting on events, like their bi-annual collaboration with Wofford Activities Council for Late-Night Breakfast. However, he implied that this newfound partnership with the new interns expands the creativity and communication of AVI, crediting them with the idea for “TikTok Night.”
“We’ve had a lot better interaction and outreach. We sent out the fall student survey, and usually we have to do a lot of legwork… to entice students to take the survey… Now, we’re able to use Jenna … to help with that and engage students and get the word out about surveys and things like that,” Tyger said.
According to both Tyger and Huser, AVI staff and their student team have the joint goal of increasing student engagement, seen clearly in the interns’ efforts to boost social media advertising for these special events and Burwell staff’s willingness to put them on.
Huser expressed that she values the ongoing partnership between herself, as a student, and AVI and the multiple perspectives this provides on the topic of on-campus dining.
For Tyger, he referred to Burwell’s special events as “monotony-breakers” for both staff and students.
“We’re always trying to do things different and have special events to create interest and just to shake it up. And it’s fun for the staff too, to not do the same old stuff every day,” Tyger said.
Students can reach out to AVI at Wofford with ideas for events or specialty items through their feedback form, available as a QR code on the screens at Burwell, and stay in-the-know about their upcoming events through their Instagram account, @aviserves_wofford.
