College students heading back to campus may notice some culinary changes. As food trucks become more popular among the college set, some on-campus dining programs are fighting outside competition by launching their own mobile eateries.

Savanna Harvard, a senior at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, was a regular customer last spring at Brothers Street Eats, an independent Cajun-style food truck that had permission to park on campus. "It was a nice change from the dining-hall food I usually had," Ms. Harvard says. "I...