Reading Time: 3 minutes
Key Topics: Retail Dining Strategy, Space Planning, Student Experience, Community Building
Author: Brendan Evje, Consultant at Envision Strategies
Featured Interview: Brandon Hendricks, Senior Associate Director of Dining Services at Virginia Tech
Watch the Full Video Interview Here
The Scale of Virginia Tech Dining
Virginia Tech operates a dining program that would make most campus dining directors take a deep breath: six major dining locations, over 15,000 meal plan participants, and more than 50 retail concepts. On peak days, the program handles 43,000 to 44,000 transactions across campus.
For Brandon Hendricks and his team, the fundamental challenge is clear: how do you move students efficiently through your venues while also creating spaces where they actually want to stay?
The Game Changing Renovation
In spring 2023, Virginia Tech completed a major renovation of the first floor of Dietrick Hall, updating three retail locations beneath their all-you-care-to-eat facility. The team anticipated the investment would drive more volume to these retail spots.
That happened. But something unexpected happened too.
“We have seen increased volumes in all-you-care-to-eat participation since that renovation as well,” Hendricks explains. “You think you spend several million dollars on a retail location, you’re going to be maybe pulling out of your residential. But we’ve seen increases at our residential dining location.”
The numbers told a story about what students actually want. Sometimes they need the grab-and-go experience: mobile order, get the food, head back to the residence hall. But other times, they want something different entirely.
“We really need to be focused on spaces where students can sit and just be themselves and be in community,” Hendricks says. “We talked about the project being our students’ living room. And it really is.”
Time as a Shifting Commodity
For years, campus dining programs operated on an assumption: time is always scarce for students. Design for speed. Optimize for throughput.
“We are so high volume, we’ve been focused on get the students the food, have a wonderful experience, and then get moving,” Hendricks explains.
But that assumption deserves reexamination. Time is still scarce during certain periods, but during others, students are actively looking for places to unplug and spend time with friends.
The Strategic Decisions Behind the Concepts
Virginia Tech’s strategy was simple: double down on what already works. Rather than experimenting with unproven concepts, they invested in expanding and elevating the venues students already loved.
The first-floor retail dining renovation touched concepts already performing well with students: a high-velocity express unit serving fries and chicken tenders that stays open until 2am, a marketplace offering variety, and a self-branded coffee shop where Virginia Tech roasts their own beans.
These weren’t random selections. The team already knew these concepts resonated. The renovation gave them the capacity and atmosphere students were seeking.
The Ever Present Budget Challenge
Hendricks is frank about the constraints shaping every capital project: “We are so budget driven. You have a plan for square footage, you have a plan for concepts, but at the end of the day, you have to make the budget work.”
Making the budget work often means reducing seating. Virginia Tech opened a beautiful new dining facility in 2024 that handles high volume and delivers exactly what the team envisioned in terms of transactions and revenue.
But the number one complaint? Not enough seats.
“We don’t have enough seats, and that’s a function of budget and square footage and having to make a decision of what we can put in this space,” Hendricks explains.
This is the paradox of campus dining facility planning: the component students value most is often the first thing cut when budgets tighten.
Reimagining What You Already Have
Looking forward, Hendricks sees the solution as reimagining spaces that already exist. Taking underutilized square footage and transforming it into flexible seating. Creating study spaces within dining venues.
“Our students don’t see the difference between the student union and the dining center,” Hendricks observes. “It’s all the same thing to them.”
That blurred boundary creates opportunity. If students think holistically about campus gathering spaces, dining programs should think the same way.
What This Means for Campus Dining Leaders
Virginia Tech’s experience offers several takeaways:
Don’t assume investments in one area automatically cannibalize another. Creating compelling retail spaces can actually strengthen residential dining participation.
Community and efficiency aren’t competing values. Students need both, at different times. Design your portfolio to accommodate both modes.
Seating is program infrastructure, not decoration. Virginia Tech’s experience demonstrates it’s fundamental to program success.
Work with what you have. Reimagining existing spaces can deliver significant impact without major capital investment.
The Mission Made Visible
At the end of our conversation, Hendricks returns to mission. Virginia Tech’s dining program exists to bring students together, to build community, to create environments where students can be themselves.
The 2023 renovation proved that when you design spaces aligned with that mission, students respond. The increased all-you-care-to-eat participation wasn’t an accident. It was the result of creating an environment where community thrives.
That’s the opportunity for every campus dining program: making your mission visible in your spaces, your concepts, and your daily operations. Virginia Tech is getting it right.
About the Conversation:
This reflection draws from a conversation with Brandon Hendricks, Senior Associate Director of Dining Services at Virginia Tech, conducted by Brendan Evje, Consultant at Envision Strategies, at the 2025 NACAS national conference.
