As more students are being accepted to the university and planning to move on-campus, the prospect of dining is at the forefront of many minds.
Texas State has two traditional buffet style dining halls, Commons and Harris, and multiple dining centers that have restaurants that students can order whatever they choose from. All freshmen are required to have a dining plan which has four different levels one can choose, giving a different amount of meal swipes and dining dollars.
“Meal swipes are going to be used mostly in our two dining hall facilities, Harris and Commons which is one swipe per entry and all you can eat,” Whitney Villarreal, the director of marketing and guest experience for Chartwells at Texas State, said. “Dining dollars are like a debit card that can be used at the national brands like Starbucks on-campus.”
Last fall, Texas State introduced the largest freshman class of the university’s history and with expectations that this year will be even larger, dining has started making changes to adapt to the new class. 
One change that the university has already started is adding new technology to dining centers to make the process of ordering and receiving food more streamlined and faster.
“We have new technology that we leverage to improve the speed of line service,” Villarreal said. “There’s going to be the addition of self-serve kiosks and 100% touchless checkouts in LBJ and Paws N’ Go.”
The self-serve kiosks will allow students to order their own food and pay for it without having to talk to a cashier. Students can use their meal plans at the kiosk and they will be installed in Burger 512, Chick-Fil-A, The Den and Jones Dining Center. 
The touchless checkouts scan the items that students are buying and accept payment through card and dining dollars. These will be located in the LBJ Marketplace and Paws N Go.
Texas State will also be increasing the hours of operation of retail locations at the LBJ Student Center to increase availability of dining for students.
Villarreal recommends that students use the Dine On Campus website and app to stay up to date on hours and menus for the dining halls. 
“The best resource we have for our students is the Dine On Campus website and app… which will tell them the hours of operation and the menus for all of the dining halls that change every single day,” Villarreal said.
For more information on dining on-campus and meal plans, visit the Texas State Auxiliary Services website.