In this series, TCU Magazine visits with alumni in the food and beverage industry. Send recommendations to tcumagazine@tcu.edu.

Stephanie Loken Edgett ’05 is the director for university dining and retail services at UT San Antonio, where she oversees contracts for the dining hall, which serves more than 2,000 meals a day, 21 retail food locations ranging from Chick-fil-A to Freebirds, more than half a dozen markets and 150 vending machines. Edgett, who recently completed her master’s in higher education administration, also helps steer remodeling projects and new concepts for campus, such as the addition of The Den by Denny’s, popular with students for its all-day breakfast. 

What drew you to a food-related career?

Friends would have Hamburger Helper for dinner or Pop-Tarts in the morning, and then my dad is making pot roast on a Sunday night or chicken marsala on a Tuesday. We just always ate good food. I started getting into baking from home ec in high school. Originally, I wanted to be a pastry chef after I finished my food management degree, but then I decided to go a different route.  

Class of 2005 alumna Stephanie Loken Edgett wears many hats as director for university dining and retail services at UT San Antonio. Courtesy of Stephanie Loken Edgett | Jose Barrera

I’m just really proud of having gone through that program at TCU. It’s a small but mighty program. There was a class I took, Quantity Foods, and it was cooking on a large scale, like if you were in a hospital or retirement home or hotel. And I just remember thinking this equipment is so cool, to be able to make this much soup.

How did TCU shape the way you approach your work? 

I lived on campus all four years. A lot of my friends are still from Colby Hall, and we would call each other at 5:30, 6 o’clock, and we would walk to the dining hall. There’d be five, six, 10 of us at any given time. To me, it was the community-building, that sense of belonging.

When we’re looking at designing a space or renovating a space, we’re trying to think, “What would be a good fit? What’s going to connect the students?” If you were to ask anyone from the early 2000s [at TCU] what their order at Deco Deli was, they would tell you. I want to pass that on to the students here.

Where on campus have you been able to foster that kind of community?

We opened a coffee shop near our bookstore, and we modeled it loosely on Friends. So instead of Central Perk, it’s Union Perk. We put in a little cat window cling, like Smelly Cat from Friends. We have a fountain on campus, so we used that fountain as artwork, like the fountain from the Friends theme song. We put a guitar in there so people could play when they are sitting on the couch. You watch students talking in line, sitting at the tables, sitting on the couch, just chit-chatting with friends — the excitement they have for it is really the most fun with a lot of these projects.

“You watch students talking in line, sitting at the tables, sitting on the couch, just chit-chatting with friends — the excitement they have for it is really the most fun with a lot of these projects.”
Stephanie Loken Edgett

What else are you working on?

The strategic planning for our area: What are the innovations and enhancements? Food-delivery robots are a big thing. Whether or not our campus can have those — that’s something that I need to look at. Our campus isn’t flat, and we don’t have a lot of ways to get from one area to the other without going around.  

Right now, we’re looking at renovating our downtown campus’ food area. They’re planning to move about 8,000 students through a couple of programs to be down on that campus permanently. Our plan is to completely renovate that space and have it open for August 2027.

What’s your favorite on-campus meal?

We have a station in our dining hall that is Tex-Mex, and one of the staff members will make posole. When the posole comes through, I’m always in line for it. Our allergen-free station tends to be one of my favorite stations as well, because the woman that makes that menu does a really good job of creating really nice, flavorful dishes.