Jay Kelly, PETA education manager, said some 3,000 students provided information about vegetarian and vegan offerings at their schools. Vegans do not eat any animal products, including milk and eggs.

The results showed almost all colleges have at least one vegetarian offering at each meal and that many have begun offering everything from seitan, a wheat-based meat substitute, to soy yogurt.

"With college students particularly concerned about the treatment of animals, we can only expect the demand for vegetarian options at college cafeterias to keep growing," Kelly said.

Schools cited in the survey as having the most progressive cafeterias include the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, New York University and Syracuse University.

Charles Stahler, co-director of the Vegetarian Resource Group, also said vegetarianism was rising at colleges, which are serving foods they never would have considered years ago.

"The proof is in the money," he said.

He said one major example of the trend can be seen at Johns Hopkins University that recently added a separate vegetarian station to its main undergraduate dining hall.

LEADING EDGE

The executive chef there, Cathy DeCarlo, said that at least half the diners were choosing items from the station.

"We feel we're on the leading edge ... It's something we're pretty excited about," she said.

She said that in addition to providing vegetarian meals, they had also taken steps to educate students about the health benefits of meatless eating.

The goal was to show students that "This (vegetarianism) is not a weird thing, it's a healthy option," she said.

DeCarlo said that eating meatless meals had become so popular at the school that "it's even a bit prestigious."

Stahler said the demand for vegetarian meals at colleges had grown so much that schools found that distributors had not added selections fast enough.

"We've heard of cases where college food service staff had to go to the local health food stores to buy soy milk or other items," he said. "This is a roadblock to institutions adding more vegetarian dishes."

However, he said that Sysco (SYY.N), the nation's largest food-service supplier, was planning on introducing a new brand with numerous products from natural foods companies, making it easier for more vegetarian items to be offered by colleges.