Dining promises

An e-mail from Estrella Lopez ’07 re: BA– Estrella, I added line breaks to make it easier to read, hope that’s okay. I have to admit in advance that I had an attack of tl;dr and just skimmed it before posting, so if you see some edits that should be made, let me know in the comments.

So, here’s what Bon Appetit “committed” to (below).

I think it might help if they can be held accountable for failing to do specific things that they promised. When I go back home I’ll try and dig up the sample menus they gave us which had pricing info on them, if they’re now way off in terms of that as well its something to bring up to them. My whole reason for jumping into this was not to defend BA but to defend our decision to pick them, I’m all for raising hell if they’re not doing what they promised, just put the blame where it belongs.

Oh one last thing about the union, I’m not as knowledgeable about union stuffs as I could be, but one thing that did come up in the conversations about this was that no matter who was selected they would have to stick with the union and that no matter who was selected (including if Aramark stayed) there might be some dissatisfaction because people’s schedules would change to fit with the new hours and some people might have to do jobs that they might not like. I know that the workers wanted Aramark, but I heard that this was perhaps in part because Aramark was constantly actively telling them that they would never have it as good as they did with them (and they didn’t have it that good with them to begin with, it took years to establish the kind of relationship they have now) and because some people were concerned about the kinds of demands from-scratch cooking would require of them.

Oh one last thing, someone asked why the workers hadn’t been more thoroughly trained prior to the beginning of the school year. I’m speculating but I think it might have something to do with a) when Usdan was actually completed and b) when their contracts to work begin. I hate to be that alum who won’t go away, but since I was involved in this whole I feel like I should stay involved, particularly if BA is not doing what they said, since I know what was said to me in the interviews etc.

-Estrella

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: jmeerts@wesleyan.edu <>
Date: Jan 26, 2007 6:50 PM
Subject: Campus Dining
To: elopez@wesleyan.edu

Wesleyan is finalizing an agreement with a new dining services provider, Bon App‚tit Management Company, to begin a new dining contract as of July 1, 2007. This was a difficult decision to make but also an exciting one, for many reasons. Among these, Bon App‚tit <> is committed to:

• Cooking food from scratch with fresh seasonal ingredients;
• Serving a wide variety of menu items at each meal, each day keeping things fresh, fun, and interesting;
• Providing flexibility, including longer service hours and variety in dining plans;
• Taking their role in the community seriously by promoting sustainability and making socially responsible purchasing decisions in regards to produce, meat, seafood, eggs, coffee and disposable plates and serviceware;
• Serving great-tasting, authentic and nutritious food that exceeds the expectations of vegetarian, vegan, kosher and international diners;
• Providing opportunities for all staff members to develop their potential and abilities.

Much of the success Bon App‚tit can anticipate at Wesleyan will depend upon the many staff members who have been a part of campus dining for years. Therefore, we are very pleased that the company has produced a dining plan that will maintain the current number of dining staff positions at campus facilities. Together, Bon App‚tit, our campus dining staff and the rest of the University community will realize the great promise of the new facilities to open at the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan University Center in the fall.

As the semester progresses, we will work with Bon App‚tit to provide more detailed information about the future of campus dining.

We want to thank the dining review committee for all of their work over the past six months, as well as the Wesleyan Student Assembly, whose Concept for Dining narrative helped frame our efforts. We also thank the students and others who participated in focus groups last spring as we developed a comprehensive request for proposals. The review committee included:

Rick Culliton, Dean of Campus Programs
Annie Fox ’07
Chris Goy ’09
Deana Hutson, Director of Events for University Relations
Estrella Lopez ’07
John Meerts, Vice President for Finance and Administration
Peter Patton, Vice President and Secretary of the University
Nate Peters, Associate Vice President for Finance
Joyce Topshe, Associate Vice President for Facilities
Michael Whaley, Dean of Student Services

Finally, we would like to thank the members of the Aramark team for all their efforts to improve campus dining over the past several years. We look forward to continuing to work with them during the spring semester.

We are excited about the challenges that lie ahead and look forward to working together to make Wesleyan’s dining program the very best it can be. Our goal is to be recognized by the campus community and by peer institutions as having a premier dining program.

Some features of the new Wesleyan fining program for 2007/2008 follow.

Service Options:

• Longer hours of operation to meet the varied schedules of students, faculty and staff.
• The second floor of the Usdan Center (the marketplace) will offer All You Care to Eat meals seven nights a week, plus brunch on Sunday. During breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week, the Usdan marketplace will be open for retail dining.
• The caf‚ on the first floor of the Usdan Center will be open from 8 a.m. through late night seven days a week.
• The Daniel Family Common, located on the third floor of Usdan, will serve as a faculty/staff dining room and will used for student dining and special events in the evenings.
• Summerfields will be open for lunch and dinner. Pi Caf‚ and WEShop will continue to operate hours similar to their current schedules.

WesWings, Red and Black Caf‚, Chic Chaque and Star and Crescent will continue to offer alternative options to campus dining.

Program Options:

• First- and second-year students will choose either 5 or 8 meals a week, plus points for the remainder of their meals.
• Juniors and seniors may choose from the plan described above or opt for an all-points plan.