Students living in the residence halls have more options in the dining room this semester.

Sodexho, the company that took over food duties from AmeriServe in the residence halls and at Billingsly Student Center, has revamped the dinning hall’s atmosphere and have added a few menu items as well.

“Everything is going very well,” said Deb Gipson, residence hall director. “Things are the way we want them to be.”

The biggest change for students in the residence hall is the self-serve bar. Students are no longer offered portions by cafeteria staff.

The new self-serve bars were given a test run over the summer with students.

“This summer it worked well during summer camps,” Gipson said. “We were pretty sure it was going to work really well.”

Rahila Khan, junior physics major, said for the most part she’s OK with the new food service program.

“I think the food is all right,” Khan said.

Khan, who lived in the residence halls last year, said that although the atmosphere has changed for the better, she’s not certain what she thinks about the new food options.

“There seems to be less food choices,” she said. “They don’t serve a lot of meat.”

Ron Cooksey, general manager of Sodexho, said when the company began working at Missouri Southern its main goal was to create a dining room atmosphere rather than just another school cafeteria. Staff workers painted walls and cleared out space around the salad bar.

“Students seem to like what we have done,” Cooksey said.

Other changes include a waffle bar that’s available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Cooksey said he interviews students on a daily basis to find out what they are enjoying and what’s lacking good taste.

“If students don’t like something on the menu, they need to let us know,” he said.

Alexandar Vassilev, freshman computer information systems major, said he’s enjoyed the food so far this semester.

“I like the diversity of the food,” Vassilev said.

Cooksey said with the addition of the self-serve bar, minimizing the amount of wasted food was a concern. It’s yet to be a problem at Southern.

“Students have been very good with that,” he said. “They aren’t wasting a lot of food.”