Dining events bring campus together
On a crisp evening in the middle of October, the Illinois Street Dining Center was buzzing with energy and full of life.
ISR’s lower level, Main Street, was also packed. Under a string of decorative lights, dancers in traditional apparel performed in front of a large group of onlookers.
In a crowded, adjacent room, people moved from table to table, interacting with student organizations and campus departments.
Upstairs, a line of people waited excitedly to enter the dining hall, many of whom didn’t normally eat at ISR.
The draw on this Wednesday night? University Housing’s dining event celebrating Diwali.
The Diwali celebration dinner is one of about two dozen special dining events held throughout the academic year in University Housing dining halls.
Months of planning go into each event, with Housing’s dining team collaborating with a variety of campus partners. From culturally authentic decorations and activities to educational components and unique, thoughtful menus, a large team of people work together to create memorable and inclusive experiences for students.
A Packed Calendar: Food and Fun for Everyone
From August through May, University Housing hosts a wide variety of special dining events. These include outdoor events at Urbana South and the Ikenberry Quad at the beginning and end of the school year; the Sustainable Student Farm Open House each September, featuring food and beverages made from local produce; Late Night Breakfast before finals in December; and the fabulously fun and fashionable Urbana South Drag Show near the end of the spring semester.
Students enjoy a special outdoor dining event on the Ikenberry Quad before spring finals.
Another annual highlight is Fall Break Cooking with the Chefs, hosted with International Education for students who remain on campus during the break. There are dinner events celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day, Diwali, Pride, Lunar New Year and Mardi Gras, plus an Easter brunch.
Housing hosts special, celebratory dining events throughout Latine Heritage Month, Native American Heritage Month and Black History Month. The dining team also provides accommodations for students during religious observances, including disposable to-go boxes, plus complementary dates, mango juice and water for iftar during Ramadan, and frozen kosher for Passover meals available by request.
And if all of those events weren’t enough, Housing's chefs get to further exercise their culinary muscles and demonstrate their skills with Chef's Table events – special multicourse meals for students who enter to win an evening of fine dining – and through fun and competitive cook-offs, which have featured their unique takes on chili, mac and cheese and gumbo.
‘This is Home for a Lot of Students’
Many of these special dining events are built around cultural celebrations, and there’s an important reason for that, according to Crystol Smith, Housing’s assistant director for Culinary Services.
“We are University Housing, and so this is home for a lot of students,” Smith said, adding that it’s important for students “to be able to celebrate and participate in cultural celebrations that [they] would participate in at home. We provide that space and the opportunity here.”
Students seemed to appreciate the chance to celebrate Diwali in the dining halls.
Ahanaa Malashetti and Sristi Ganta, roommates in Florida Avenue residence halls, came to ISR because of the dinner event and enjoyed the experience.
“I like the food that they had,” Malashetti said. “I think it represented the culture well, and I like that it was festival food, so that was quite nice. We haven't had Indian food in a while, and we celebrate Diwali, so it was just nice to have Indian food and taste it after a while.”
Ganta agreed, saying, “Yeah, I also really liked the decorations they had around the dining hall. I think the food was really good. The desserts, especially – we really liked the desserts,” noting the mango lassi and gulab jamun.
“It was nice to have that representation here and be able to eat food in the dining hall like you recognize,” Ganta said. “It also introduced me to new Indian food that I've never tried before because it comes from different cultures that maybe my parents don't specifically make, but I know other cultures do, so that was really cool to see how other cultures do it.”
It Takes a Village
When it comes to menu planning for Housing’s special dining events, Smith works closely with campus partners and dining chefs, taking a deliberate approach that involves student ideas and feedback, recipe testing and careful consideration to ensure authentic representation and dishes that work well together.
Smith said Housing’s approach to Latine Heritage Month dinners has continued to evolve in recent years based on the feedback of the dining team and one of its collaborative partners, La Casa Cultural Latina.
Happy diners enjoy a sample from a cooking demo held at Lincoln Avenue Dining Hall during Housing's Latine Heritage Month celebrations.
She said a few years back the La Casa team offered feedback that the menus were “very Mexican heavy. So, there wasn't a lot of representation of the entire diaspora, or a larger portion of the diaspora.”
With that in mind, Housing’s team moved forward with menus featuring dishes that better represented all of Latin America and Spain.
In doing so, however, Smith said members of the dining team felt “the dishes were disconnected. It still felt like we can do it better. So, we decided to separate it out by venue. We have four dining halls, and so one dining hall is going to do Central and South America; one dining hall is going to do Mexico; one dining hall does the Caribbean; and one dining hall does Spain.”
Housing’s collaborative partners provide more than just advice on menus.
Smith said with cultural celebrations it’s important to ask, “Are we appropriating or are we appreciating? And so [it means] reaching out to those people who are subject matter experts and can say, ‘Well, maybe not this,’ or ‘We would like to change the language’” on promotional materials.
La Casa, for instance, has provided guidance on shifting language – from the name Hispanic Heritage Month to Latinx Heritage Month and now Latine Heritage Month, reflecting a shared goal of inclusivity with phrasing that makes better sense linguistically.
Housing’s partners help plan and organize what’s happening at the dining events, including activities and tabling, and they provide educational materials and resources.
Students will often see representatives from the Counseling Center, Gender & Sexuality Resource Center, International Education, McKinley Health Center and the Women’s Resources Center at special dining events.
Additionally, Housing works with campus cultural centers and student groups when planning dining events. For example, the Muslim Students Association provides educational materials at iftar during Ramadan.
Cultural Centers Are Key Contributors
In addition to La Casa, Housing also collaborates with the other cultural centers on campus on various dining events: the Asian American Cultural Center, the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC), Native American House and the Salaam Middle East & North Africa Cultural Center.
Kianna Truitt, an intern at BNAACC, worked at the Jollof Rice Cook-Off, part of Housing's Black History Month celebrations, and enjoyed the experience.
“It's been a great time so far,” Truitt said. “I enjoy seeing the different cultures here. We've had a lot of people here from Ghana, from Congo, from Nigeria, somebody from Haiti as well. It's kind of cool seeing all different cultures. As somebody that's African American, it's cool to see the people just come to celebrate not only their culture, but also just the food overall. And we get to taste food ... so that's the fun part, too!”
Amy Kyung-Eun Breslin is the associate director of the Asian American Cultural Center, which is one of Housing's primary partners with the Diwali and the Lunar New Year dinner celebrations.
Dancers perform on ISR's Main Street during Housing's Diwali dinner celebration.
“I really love both of these events," Breslin said, “because they're Housing- and dining-initiated collaborations. And what I appreciate about it is the fact that dining had this idea in mind years ago that they wanted to be able to offer more culturally specific programming and services for the students who utilize the dining halls.”
Breslin said she worked with Smith to get copies of previous years’ menus for the Diwali celebration and put together a survey, which was sent to the registered student organizations affiliated with the AACC. From there, students provided input on menu items and were able to suggest new dishes as well.
“Dining was able to incorporate three student suggestions,” Breslin said. “This really demonstrates how serious dining is when working directly with the stakeholders. That's something I really appreciate.”
The AACC was also responsible for the activities and programming happening on ISR’s Main Street during the traditional Diwali celebration.
“We work directly with all of the RSOs that affiliate with us to curate cultural performances for each celebration dinner,” Breslin said. “For example, Hindu YUVA is the affiliate RSO that facilitated the puja, a Hindu ceremony and central component to the celebration. We also work very closely with International Education to coordinate cultural activities and make sure everything's running smoothly.”
Breslin said the AACC also worked “to raise awareness and visibility of the event,” spreading the word to not only the affiliate student organizations, but also academic departments and Student Affairs units, so students across campus could enjoy the dining event along with those living in the residence halls.
Bringing Students Together
At the Diwali celebration dinner, Malashetti and Ganta said the special menu became a topic of conversation with other students they hadn’t previously met.
“We were sitting next to people in the dining hall who were trying new food, and they're like, ‘I really like this,’ and it was a good way to share your culture with other people,” Ganta said.
She thinks the all-you-care-to-eat dining halls are an especially good place to try new foods because students don’t have to pay extra to try dishes they’re not sure if they’ll like.
Smith said that’s part of University Housing’s goal with these special dining events.
“That's what we are here to do – provide educational experiences. That includes educating students about cultural celebrations so they can learn more about the people they’re sharing space with. We also like to highlight that!”
For Malashetti, it really is a highlight.
“There are people from all over the world here at U. of I., and I think just having that representation – but also being able to learn about people's cultures – is really nice.”