If you’ve grown tired of eating and cycling through the same dining options available on campus, look no further. A new and different dining experience has opened at the University of North Florida (UNF) campus on Wednesday — Qdoba.

Qdoba is a chain restaurant that serves a Tex-Mex style of food that differs from what the UNF campus currently offers.

Replacing Slice, a pizza joint that opened in 2018, Qdoba will be setting up shop on the western side of the John A. Delaney Student Union on the first floor, next to Einstein Bros Bagels and Panda Express.

Its opening is the culmination of Student Government’s (SG) efforts to diversify food options on campus. 

Spearheaded by the Besirevic administration. George Boston served as the Student Advocate at the time SG opened the doors to getting Qdoba onto campus. Currently, Boston works as an administrative specialist in the UNF graduate school and recently graduated.  

Boston said that getting Slice replaced was one of the Besirevic administration’s biggest goals from the beginning.  Throughout meetings with the Vice President of Administration and Finance, it was agreed upon that a new restaurant should come to UNF.  

“[UNF] told us that we needed the survey the students before anything happened. So, my role in that was I built the on-campus dining satisfaction questionnaire, and I distributed that to the students on campus,” Boston said. 

After receiving about 1,700 student responses, the majority indicated they would like to see a Tex-Mex restaurant on campus. After further deliberation with Administration and Finance, SG decided on Qdoba as they were already interested in that space. 

SB-22S-3603, the SG bill of funding, passed through SG voting, and $202,913.38 was allocated to the creation and opening of Qdoba.  

The student survey discussed a variety of topics for students to consider and respond to, including their satisfaction with the current food variety options, wait times, quality and price of different dining areas on campus. 

Those with dietary restrictions were also considered in the student survey. Boston explained that one of the added benefits of Qdoba and Tex-Mex style food, in general, is that it tends to lean more vegetarian and vegan friendly by including more of a variety of protein options.  

Boston said that Qdoba is a step in the right direction in terms of efforts for UNF to become more inclusive and sensitive to students’ dietary needs. 

By bringing in another dining option to campus, Boston believes the UNF campus will see more variety, access to better food, and lower wait times across the popular dining areas.  

“It’s really important for students when they see a problem that they want fixed, to realize that you’re paying money to be here, these are your fees at work, these are your tuition dollars at work, so this is something that you get to have a say in,” Boston said. “That’s why this happened, a group of students said this is something that we want changed, and they changed it, and that’s something to be recognized.”  

The opening of Qdoba also provides job opportunities for students as they, and all dining venues on campus, are currently hiring for all positions. Anyone can apply online at dineoncampus.com/UNF or text UNF to 75000. 

Learn more about this new dining location on campus here.

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