Hottest Trends on Campus

By David Replogle, University of Virginia

The college campus is a quintessential hotspot for the latest trends among America’s youth. From fast food you can make in dorms, to the latest DVD that everyone is buying, to the best new place to score a pair of jeans, you’ll likely find out all you’d ever need to know just by taking a quick look at a freshmen suite or senior apartment. Here, we weed out what’s hot around college campuses as of late.

What’s Hot in ... Food
Sodexo, a food service provider to 650 different college campuses in the United States, just released its top 10 food trends list for 2011, featuring the most popular dining hall meals.

Global cuisine At the top of the list of faves are grilled chicken souvlaki, paella and spanakopita. Closer to the bottom of the menu are Spanish tomato bread with Manchego cheese, pesto pasta bowl, and wild mushroom risotto balls with pesto aioli. Global fare with a Mediterranean flare, it seems!

Stealth health Sodexo also labeled “stealth health” as a trend for 2011. Rounding out the list is couscous chicken stew, orecchiette with broccoli and garbanzo beans, pita bread salad with tangy dressing, and edamame and corn salad.

Local fare The company also looked at several specific schools to see how they liked to eat. Students at Seattle Pacific University love fresh local seafood and fruits, while those at Emory University are big fans of hummus made with locally grown chickpeas.

What’s Hot on ... TV
Comedies are big around campuses, of course -- veterans like “Family Guy” and “South Park” are still heavily viewed, and new contenders such as “Modern Family” are building fan bases. But with faves like “The Office,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “30 Rock” entering old age, college crowds are in search of new sources of hilariousness. We present you with:

“Archer” The animated show on FX, now in its second outing, centers on Sterling Archer -- a hilariously dim, chauvinistic playboy secret agent -- and his clandestine organization’s crew of equally absurd counterparts. The show has been a huge hit even after facing critical competition on Thursday nights at 10:30 p.m. from MTV’s juggernaut “Jersey Shore.” Considering its sarcastic banter and uproarious storyline, it’s no surprise watching the show has become routine in college dorms.

“The League” Like “Archer,” this is one of FX’s newest experiments. It debuted in fall 2009 with a modest six episodes, and then came back again last fall with 13 episodes. While ratings haven’t been huge, the show has gained a cult-like following among young adult males, especially football fans. The show focuses on five lifelong Chicago buddies whose eventful lives intersect with the ruthless win-at-all-costs competition in their Fantasy Football league. The humor is outrageous -- with much of it improvised -- and the cast is spot-on. In January, it was announced that the show’s been picked up for a third season.

“Tosh.0” Even though “Tosh.0” has been on Comedy Central for a couple of years, students are just catching on to the bitterly sarcastic humor of Daniel Tosh. Much like Joel McHale has found a niche satirizing reality TV clips on E!’s “The Soup,” Tosh’s half-hour program takes advantage of the wealth of funny YouTube vids. It’s ripe with snarky one-liners, off-color commentary and a series of Tosh’s own personal video vignettes, like “Web Redemptions,” in which people famously humiliated on YouTube have a chance to redeem themselves.

What’s Hot in ... Fashion
Considering the fast-moving pace of fashion trends, it’s hard to pin down exactly what’s hot around campuses at any given time. But between comeback kicks and stalwart jackets, we’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head here.

Nikes “Nikes are making a big comeback,” says Harris Hudson, a senior at the University of Virginia. “You can dress them up or dress them down. It doesn’t matter too much, since they’ll get worn either way.” Yep -- flashy, colorful Nikes reminiscent of the late ’80s have become fixtures on the feet of campus crawlers. The company recently unveiled pics of its new SB Dunk Collection for March 2011 -- lots of suede and showy color. “They’re like pop art for your feet,” says Hudson.

Barbour jackets Mostly seen on sorority girls, but on a few frat boys as well, these have also become a campus staple. The throwback jackets, created by British clothing manufacturer J. Barbour & Sons, have recently become popular among the Greek populations. “I think, literally, two out of every three girls on my campus has a Barbour,” says James Madison University freshman Olivia Paulini. “It’s almost overkill, but hopefully once the weather gets nicer, they’ll be put back into storage!”

What’s Hot in ... Music
More and more often, college students are turning to the Internet for their tunes. Any music video you could ever want is on YouTube, while Pandora is a godsend for studying. Is the future of party playlists online? Looking like it ...

D.M.L. Want an easy way to find good remixes and mashups? Try DirtyMexicanLemonade.com, a hybrid of more established sites such as GottaDanceDirty.com and FratMusic.com. The site, founded last year by a couple college freshmen -- Conor Ambrose of Elon University and Ryan Gardner of Richmond University -- was a brainchild of a simple text message. “Ryan and I were always sending songs back and forth to one another,” says Ambrose. “It turned into the point where Ryan texted me and asked if I wanted to start a music blog. We have tons of playlists ready instantly whenever you’re in need of music for a party. We scour the Internet every day, review the submissions and put the best stuff in one place for college kids.”

What’s Hot in ... Video Games
You can’t enter a dorm without immediately feeling the warm blast of 100 different gaming consoles hitting you square in the chest. “Call of Duty” has become a dominant franchise, revolutionizing the way college dudes spend their free time.

Black Ops Last November, the seventh installment of the insanely popular “COD” series was released -- “Call of Duty: Black Ops” -- with sales exceeding $1 billion. “It’s addictive,” says Eric Lee, a freshman at the University of Virginia. “Before class, you play. After class, you play. You play with your entire hall, against strangers from all over the world -- it’s crazy.” To fuel the addiction, Treyarch released the “Black Ops First Strike Map Pack” for Xbox Live on February 1, with packs for PlayStation 3 and PC coming later. “My hallmates and I have already torn through the Map Pack,” says Lee. “Now we begin a long countdown until the next ‘COD’ game is released.”