Dining services has a new manager

This archived article was written by: Kaina Elias

Utah State University’s Dining Services has a new manager, Emily Bradley, 42, who accepted the position on Oct. 1, and besides being the coordinator of campus events, Bradley also takes care of everything food-related on campus.
For those students that eat in the cafeteria, they already noticed changes made by Bradley, which includes opening the side door of the cafeteria, giving it a bigger and open look. Also, the students can check the menu for the entire week instead of finding out what would be served on the same day.
The new vending machines are also something students are starting to use, enjoying a wider variety of drinks, plus new drink machines in the cafeteria and the grille.
Questioned about her short-term plans, Bradley mentioned the temporary closing of the Aggie Grille, effective Nov. 1 until Jan. 15, for renovation. The space will change, creating an environment with more options for the students, where the dining services staff test new recipes and create some from scratch.
Such action will not affect negatively the students, though. The cafeteria hours will be extended, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Students still will be able to order everything that they have available in the Grille, including smoothies at lunch and dinner, something that also is new under Bradley’s administration.
For the long term, her ideas are a work progress, but some include serving food in the BDAC, where students could use their meal plans and student IDs to purchase food. Bradley also wants the vending machines where the students could use their meal plans to purchase drinks without having to use cash or coins. This last one will be hopefully implemented starting in January 2018.
As the coordinator of campus events, Bradley has worked an average of 100 events per month, which according to her own words, it’s her passion. She has worked with events many years, organizing them for 20 people to 2 million.
She lives off campus since she left the hall director position to be full time dining services administrator (she used to live in Session Hall).
Bradley loves to work with the students on campus, which is one of her passions just like it is working with events. She has two children, Jayce, 21, and Ryland, 18. Her husband Aaron completes the family.
One of her hobbies is playing violin, which she enjoys very much.
Bradley said, “I would like to let people on campus aware of how amazing the dining services staff is. During the transition in the administration, there was no manager for a while and the crew was able to keep feeding all the students on campus through hard work and commitment.”
Bradley says that it is important to realize how hard it can be sometimes to run the cafeteria and the grille, so even though students may not know who is the one on the other side of the kitchen, they should be thankful for the hard work they have been doing for the community on campus.