Amid continued criticism from some students about campus dining, the Binghamton University Dining Services announced new improvements for the fall 2025 semester.

The new updates include extended hours at the College-in-the-Woods Dining Hall, online nutrition facts for all dining hall foods, local food vendors available at Nite Owl and new food truck options on campus.

The dining hall, previously open Monday through Thursdays from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Fridays until 1:30 p.m., has expanded its hours to include a brunch option on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. This update follows repeated student requests, allowing College-in-the-Woods residents to eat closer to their dorms on weekends.

“It’s great that CIW is expanding to weekend hours because as a previous CIW resident it was annoying to have to walk to Mountainview or C4 in the morning on the weekends,” wrote Ella Sperry, a junior majoring in economics.

The University also announced it has discontinued the BUC$ program, an optional service allowing prepaid funds to be added to a student ID card for use at locations like the University Bookstore, the Food Co-op and all campus dining locations (3). The BUDS website claims that this change will allow for a “transition to more modern, flexible, and widely used payment options across campus.”

BUDS will also provide nutrition facts for each food item served at the dining halls on their website, allowing students to make more informed choices about their diets. New options at food trucks on campus and local food vendor features at Nite Owl will also be unveiled in the coming weeks.

“BUDS values feedback and works continuously/throughout the year with students and administration to make campus dining more convenient, inclusive, nutritious, tasty and engaging for the entire community,” Lori Benson, the director of marketing for BUDS, wrote in a statement to Pipe Dream.

Students have previously voiced their frustration at the state of campus dining. In March, the Young Democratic Socialists of America hosted a town hall for students to come together and share their grievances against BUDS and Sodexo, the company that operates the University’s dining services. Sodexo’s current contract with BU, signed in 2015, is set to expire this year.

Despite the new updates, some students do not believe these changes made by BUDS adequately address their concerns. In their petition last semester, the YDSA focused its attention on four main areas — meal plan reform, health and safety precautions, dietary accommodations and worker rights/dignity.

In a March Instagram post, the YDSA further described their demands, like the introduction of a meal swipe plan instead of using dining dollars, levying penalties on food providers when health standards are not met, expanding kosher and halal options and increasing pay for dining hall workers. The YDSA claimed more than half of all students who answered their survey became sick from the dining hall food and that about 61 percent have run out of funds in their meal plans.

“Sodexo claims that ‘Binghamton students asked and BUDS delivered,’” wrote the YDSA in a statement to Pipe Dream. “That is not the case. While we appreciate the Sodexo’s response to our pressure campaign with the addition of nutritional facts, the other changes — a new pickup app and three hours of CIW weekend dining — do nothing to meaningfully address student concerns that center affordability, variety, and quality because it would mean Sodexo would have to deliver for students, not its shareholders.”

The Student Association unanimously passed a resolution last year calling for expanded kosher, halal and vegetarian options on campus and improved student access to inclusive dining. The legislation cited the importance of accessible food options for students of all religious and dietary needs.

BUDS and Sodexo have yet to expand these options, as kosher and halal food are only available for limited lunch and dinner hours at C4.

“The administration has not delivered on providing dining that students can afford through the implementation of a meal swipe program and the elimination of the $4,220 yearly membership fee,” the statement continued. “They have not delivered in providing more dietary accommodations for our kosher, halal, vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free students. They have not delivered in supporting our hardworking dining hall employees by condemning Sodexo’s union-busting of student workers and demanding higher pay and better benefits. They have not even delivered on making the food safe to eat with numerous critical health violations at our dining halls.”

“The student body is not asking: we demand better dining on campus,” it concluded.