Simpson College’s Pfeiffer Dining Hall underwent construction towards the end of the 2025-26 school year after many years of complaints. The brand-new project cost Simpson $10 million and took approximately nine months.
Students shared similar reactions to the upgraded facility. Taylor Plagge, a junior on the Simpson golf team, expressed his views on the upgrades.
“I think everyone knew it was time to upgrade Pfeiffer,” Plagge said. “It almost seemed like the old building was making students turn away from the food more than coming to eat it.”
The new facility isn’t just bringing in great reviews from students, but also from faculty. Ken Coder, the general manager for Sodexo, which is the food service company responsible for administering Simpson’s meal plan, said he really enjoys the new facility.
“It has to be the lightness and airiness as an overall great feel as soon as one walks in,” Coder said. “The first station you see is the salad bar and the UCook station. The students really have been drawn to the UCook station so far.”
The UCook station is a cooking area in the new facility where students can prepare custom meals. Students have the option to make food items such as stir fry, waffles or eggs.
Despite these new additions, Coder admitted Simpson is not completely finished with the facility. When asked whether there was anything pending, Coder explained the missing components and outlined Sodexo’s future goals.
“There is one burner at the UCook station that got damaged prior to opening, but that is due here in the next couple of days,” Coder said. “We are also looking forward to the soft serve ice cream machine becoming operational; It just got installed, and we will hopefully have it up and running by next week.
Coder said they are still working on the beverage and dessert station and that students will have to stay tuned.
Coder noted that while Simpson students may not have favored the dining hall experience in the past, the school is doing everything it can to get students back into the new facility and to make them happy with their food again.
“I believe it will change everything about the experience,” Coder said. “No Pfeiff smell, no dungeon-like feel, better layout, better security … The overall goal is to offer a great experience to all of our guests.”
Coder expressed his excitement about how the brand-new facility could improve Simpson’s dining experience.
