Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Dining opened up the 2025-2026 school year with numerous changes. From the revamping of restaurants like Cantina 1910 to additions like Cinnabon. As the summer approaches, more changes will take place for the next school year. 

Jon Zachrich, director of Marketing, Communications, and Technology for BGSU Dining, recalled the changes from the school year and the success. 

“Overall, the changes were pretty successful both from a customer satisfaction standpoint, but also from a revenue, like, how popular locations are, standpoint as well,” Zachrich said. 

Amid the positive feedback, there are still some things BGSU Dining is working to incorporate for next school year, something Zachrich and his team are constantly workshopping. From receiving constant feedback, new initiatives and ideas for partnerships are brewed. 

“There’s a local donut shop called Mama C’s that’s in Maumee that does deliver to this area. We did get some feedback that adding something like that to some of our Crimson Cup locations could be cool, so we’re currently investigating those sorts of things,” he said

For well-established dining options, a part of the dining experience is the equipment and the layouts of the establishments on campus. Popular locations like Panda Express could be seeing some changes over the summer. 

“They’re going to be bringing in some new equipment, updating the setup. The other part is they’re going to be adding a pickup order window,” Zachrich said.

These changes point to new initiatives BGSU Dining is looking to implement. The pick-up window is meant to help with new delivery options. 

“We can do that with our current system without any issues, but we know Panda Express as an entity prefers Grubhub.”

Changing the delivery options for various places on campus is not set in stone. Zachrich and his team are exploring what could be available.

“We haven’t made any commitments on looking into GrubHub as our mobile ordering system. It would give us a lot more flexibility than what we currently have with the Transact mobile app that most people know of right now,” he said. 

The main focus for BGSU Dining’s changes, apart from equipment changes in the Falcon’s Nest, is the architectural redo of Carillon Place. A part of some of the interior updates will feature some historical visual components and other BGSU-themed decor.

“We’re going to be working with the university’s archives and marketing team to get some really cool old photos… and a couple of huge timelines about important points throughout the  university’s history,”

By focusing on the overall appearance of the dining hall, Zachrich hopes it will allow for more traffic to be dispersed during peak dining hours at places like the Nest.

“Right now, they’re not at capacity, but they’re busy too. We’re hoping that the more people we can get to go to Carillon Place, the more that the Falcon Nest opens up, we know that helps,” he said.

Some students, when eating on campus, may prefer a relaxing and quiet setting. One of the improvements for the dining experience includes sensory-friendly seating areas for students. 

“In the Oaks and Carillon Place, we are working with the university to do kind of sensory low areas. So, on the second floor of Carillon Place, we removed the music; we’re going to be doing that more as a low stimulation area,” Zachrich said. 

For the Oaks, the quiet area would be located behind the wooden doors to the right of the cashier when guests walk in. 

“We unhooked a couple of the speakers, and then we’re going to be adding some sound dampening to that area to also make that just a little bit calmer, a little bit easier for students who are looking for that low sensory sort of experience to be able to eat there as well,” he said.

Closing out the year with continued plans of improvements and revamps, Zachrich was satisfied with the work done for the school year and excited for the future.

“Overall, we’re excited it’s been a really good year. We’ve definitely seen a lot of successes, and like our major events, we’re excited about those getting bigger and bigger,” he said.