The Eagles’ Nest, an increasingly popular mealtime destination, has seen a litany of changes over the summer. The once-tiny café revamped its menu, ordering process, prices and hours to make it follow a fast food restaurant model.

The new meal equivalency plans implemented last fall have greatly increased the amount of transactions in the Nest.

Manager of dining operations Fred Geib said that, with the new meal equivalency plan, the Eagles’ Nest went from processing 100,000 swipes a year to around 250,000.

“[The Eagles’ Nest] wasn’t…built for this,” Geib said.

As the small café turned into a larger conglomeration, it became more difficult to handle.

With the growth in orders, expansions have been proposed.

One option is to move Eagles’ Nest to Redwood. Another is to renovate the current location in the student center.

“We made all the renovations we could without knocking out any walls,” said Doug Reynolds, the supervisor of Eagles’ Nest. “The next step is to start knocking out walls.”

Reynolds and Geib said that the increased traffic has caused food to be prepared slower and with more inefficiency.

Stealing was a problem last year, so management is combatting it with the new procedures.

One change was streamlining the menu, cutting foods out like the chicken parmesan sandwich, the Hawaiian burger and brownie bites.

By limiting the choices, the meals can be prepared faster.

Not all menu changes were removals. Twelve new toppings are available which allow students to build their own sandwiches.

There is also a new line of Starbucks Frappuccinos available.

The new traffic pattern has students now ordering at the register instead of the grill. In addition to increased traffic flow, this new system makes theft more difficult.

Geib said that with the constant horde of students standing around in the past, cashiers did not know who was paying for what or who had already paid.

Reynolds said that prices needed to be raised because they had remained the same for three years. Even with the changes, he was sure to keep prices in within with the $6.50-per-swipe equivalency.

Gift baskets and vouchers will also be back this year to use up extra or left-over swipes, along with a new option to donate swipe money to the Food Bank.

Some complaints have been received because some meals will register just over $6.50. Reynolds recommends that students add a few Eagle dollars to their cards in order to avoid wasting a swipe on an extra 80 cents.

It would be an easy way to offset a weird balance at the end of an order without wasting a swipe or griping to friends to borrow money.

This would also eliminate the need for students to run quick math adding items to fill a full swipe at the register.

Students who have problems with the Nest, or suggestions, are encouraged to submit comments or concerns to Auxiliary Services, because they will be heard.

Last year at a student speak-up, the idea of shifting hours over the weekend was proposed.

Before the year was over, new hours were implemented.