UHDS News

Effective Fall 2013, Reserve Officer Training Corps will once again encourage its cadets and midshipmen to live in Finley Hall on the south side of OSU’s campus. The change, announced by University Housing & Dining Services this week, is an update to previous plans that had indicated part of Sackett Hall would be used for a second year for ROTC.

This community is designed for students who would like to live with other ROTC students who maintain the same rigorous ROTC schedule. Finley Hall is also conveniently located near several ROTC campus facilities.

For new students that requested Sackett with the ROTC building option on their Fall 2013 housing application, UHDS automatically updated the selection to Finley ROTC.

New students are welcome to revisit and update building preferences in the online housing application at any time. UHDS also encourages new students to communicate with potential roommates about the change before new student room selection begins May 20. Students can check the important application dates or their MyUHDS to determine their exact day for room selection.

Any returning residents (upperclassmen) who plan to live in the ROTC community are encouraged to make a room selection change, if necessary, by April 30.

For questions, please contact the UHDS housing office at 541-737-4771 or housing@oregonstate.edu.

View the video at the source: KVAL TV, Apr. 3, 2013.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Jay Perry knew he wanted to be a chef at a young age.

“When I was 18, I saw the chef at a hotel I was in,” said Perry, chef at Oregon State University Marketplace West Dining Center. “The chef was 34 years old, and back then all chefs wore all white. Just that look that respect when he walked through the kitchen, I said to myself, ‘That’s what I’m going to be.'”

Perry wears the white chef coat at OSU – and earns respect through competition. Chef Jay took home silver from the National Association of College and University Food Services competition in Reno, Nevada.

“It kind of bridges a gap between the university and the housing and dining of just understanding that we’re here representing the school as well when we are doing these competitions,” Perry said. “It’s not always about football and basketball and baseball, but cooking is a part of the university as well.”

For a chef at Oregon State, the competition’s choice of protein – duck – was a feast fit for a Beaver.

Winning awards means a lot, but Perry sees cooking for college students as part of the larger mission of the university.

“Eating is an essential part of their education,” he said. “To eat right is good for the mind, it’s good for the body, it’s good for the spirit, so when we are giving them good food and giving them good options, it keeps them happy, it keeps them focused on what they come here for: to get an education.”

[Food Management, Feb. 27, 2013] — Cooper’s Creek, a Southern food concept at Oregon State University’s Market West dining hall, had been doing Southern food right for a few months after opening last year. Students and faculty could belly up to barbecue, blackened catfish, fried chicken, jambalaya, beef brisket, shrimp and grits, ribs, gumbo and more.

The Southern food was selling great at dinnertime—but at lunch? Not so much.

“We just weren’t pulling the numbers at lunch,” says Jay Perry, chef de cuisine at Oregon State University. Clearly, a new strategy was needed.

The solution came in the form of salads. Not just any salads, though: Salads that make use of those great Southern proteins and flavors. There was some risk involved, too: the salads were to be hand tossed, to order.

A tasting panel helped narrow down the selection of the Southern salads and their house-made dressings. Currently, customers can choose: Grape and Goat Cheese, Harvest Salad (dark green kale, orange winter squash, beets, with acai dressing), Shrimp Louis, Grilled Vegetable, Southern Cobb or Blackened Chicken (with zesty spices, oranges and spinach).

The salads are packed with local produce that’s rich in nutrients and antioxidants. That message is conveyed through marketing, and it seems like it hits the exact right lunchtime note.

“I thought they would do pretty well, but it’s just been amazing. Lunch sales for this concept increased 55 percent,” Perry says.

To keep things moving, no substitutions are allowed (except for dressings). However, customers can ask to leave ingredients out. …

Read the full article by Tara Fitzpatrick.