College Dining Halls: My Advice for Other Autistic Students

When I started college, one challenge was navigating the dining hall. Mealtimes were stressful because I never knew how long it would take to find a seat or when it was acceptable to leave my seat. Since I was not given advice on this topic, I had to figure out how to manage this daily activity on my own. I hope this blog post helps prospective college students get through mealtimes with less difficulty.

A cafeteria. On the left side are wooden floors with tables and chairs lined up on the wall and big posters hanging up with pictures of food. On the right side is tiled floor with more tables and chairs and lots of flags and posters on the walls.

In high school, meals are served in the cafeteria at scheduled times, but in college, meals are served in different buildings called dining halls, and are served continuously. High school students are told when and how long to eat, while college students choose those things. There are times when dining halls are more crowded and have longer lines, so I suggest that nervous students go to dining halls when they are less crowded if possible.

Usually, college dining halls are divided into two sections: the place where students get the food and the place where students eat the food. There is usually a location for students to place their trays with dirty dishes as they leave.

While most students get food before sitting down, I suggest that students find seats first because it can be hard to wait for seats to free up while holding food. I also suggest first putting a place saver like a backpack or coat at the table and then going to get food. I preferred to sit at empty tables. Sometimes students asked if they could sit with me and I said “yes.” When I was pressed for time and no table was completely free, I asked students if I could sit with them. They usually said “yes,” and only said “no” if the seat was being saved.

When I sat with other students, it took me a while to realize that I could leave whenever I wanted. Doing so was not rude because we all had different schedules. I suggest that students practice this skill in advance so they feel less rude or awkward when it happens in the dining hall.

Discovering and utilizing these strategies lowered my anxiety and enabled me to successfully navigate the dining hall physically and socially. I hope this blog post helps readers develop plans of action for future endeavors.

Jevon Okundaye was the 2017-2018 Young Adult Leader Fellow at MAC and returned while the office is working remotely. He will be continuing his blog series “Ask a Self-Advocate.” Jevon is a Black autistic young man. He graduated from Tufts University in 2019. Jevon hopes this series can help others self-advocate and succeed in school, college, jobs, and life. The suggestions in this series are based on Jevon’s personal experience. He realizes that what worked for him may not work for everyone else. The experience and advice in this post are based on a pandemic-free world.