News Year in Review

Dining Search
Compiled by Nina Lalli from articles by Liz Heron, Alyson Dame and Ariel Whitworth.

OC Debates Dining Options

Come fall 2001, the meal plan offered by the College will be different, due to steps taken by the administration. 
The College decided in September to open its dining service, under contract with Sodhexo Marriott during the 2000-2001 school year, to new bidders in the spring. 
Throughout the fall, a dining consultant met with students, faculty and staff to discuss reconfiguration of the meal plan. The resulting report became the proposal from which the new bidders worked. 
“We felt that it was the appropriate time to do a thorough analysis,” said Michelle Gross, assistant director of Residential Life and Services. 
The consultant, Hank Steinberg, is the president of the Rochelle Group, a food service consulting firm that operates nationally. Steinberg planned in September to meet with Residential Coordinators, representatives from Oberlin Student Cooperative Association and students and faulty on the Housing and Dining Committee. 
In April, Steinberg met with students for their input regarding dining needs. 
“He’ll be here sporadically throughout the fall, and through the spring too,” Residential Life Director Kim LaFond said. 
The College’s contract with Marriott was first signed in 1987, and continued when Marriott merged with Sodhexo in 1998. According to Gross, contracts were reviewed and renegotiated every three to five years. 
“Some thought we would extend the existing contract or negotiate a new contract, but we really do feel the need to take a deeper look at our relationship with Sodhexo Marriott,” Vice President of Finance Andy Evans said. 

The decision to take a new look at Campus Dining Services followed a controversy over Sodhexo Marriott Service’s alleged involvement with private prisons. Last spring, students took part in a nation-wide protest of SMS called “Not With Our Money!, People Before Profits at Campus Dining Services.” 
Sodhexo Alliance, which holds shares in 48 percent of Sodhexo Marriott, invests in Corrections Corporation of America. SMS publicly denied ties with the prisons, claiming they are separate from SA. 
The College did not bar SMS from the bidding process. “You shouldn’t throw out anyone on that alone,” Evans said in regards to SMS’s alleged investment in prisons for profit. “I’m not at the point where I think it’s a deal-killer.” 
Companies wishing to bid on the contract were given a Request For Proposal designed by the College according to Steinberg’s recommendations. “The real challenge is to make sure to put in that RFP what the community wants,” Evans said. “Then give the bidders some creativity to meet our needs.” 
Student opinions on Marriott remained largely negative.
“I think the company we have now should definitely go,” junior Westen McConnell said. 
“Marriott should go because of all that investing in prisons and other naughtiness,” junior Connie Brichford said. “Also, I think it’s pretty silly to do all these weird things to get off board. There should at least be a ten-meal plan.” 
Members of the administration were aware of students’ complaints about CDS, specifically the difficulty of getting off board. 
“There isn’t any doubt that campus dining is financially dependent on all students taking part, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be reconfigured,” said Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith. 
“There are a few possibilities,” Evans said. “I wouldn’t commit to anything yet.”

CDS Finalists Chosen; Marriot Not In Running 

In mid-April, after four hours of discussion, the combined Housing and Dining and Request for Proposals committees decided that Parkhurst, Bon Appétit and Chartwells dining companies would be reviewed as finalists in the running for Oberlin’s new food service provider.
Responding to student protest, the College decided to put the CDS account up for bid a year early.

The committee ranked the seven proposals submitted and the top three became finalists. According to LaFond, the three companies represent small, medium and large corporations.
Sodexho Marriot applied for the account, but was not chosen. “We had students who came to the meeting to voice their concerns,” LaFond said. 
LaFond said that twice during the meeting groups of students came in to explain why they did not want Sodexho Marriot to be chosen as a finalist. “I wouldn’t call it a protest,” he said. 
A statement from the committees to the Oberlin community outlined the criteria used to select the finalists. It was important to the committee that Oberlin’s dining company “provide students with good value, address the needs of the student community and reinforce the educational mission of the institution”, the statement read.
When asked whether the companies’ past histories were considered, Goldsmith said, “The decision to narrow seven to three was based first upon the degree to which the companies addressed the criteria in the RFP. At the same time, we asked and encouraged students to make judgements about these companies on the basis of things that matter to them.”
Senior and Committee Member Jane Glynn said, “We have to be careful what we’re evaluating companies on because we could get sued.” Glynn did, however, say she thought the ethical track record of a company should be considered and discussed. 
LaFond suggested students raise issues they might have at the open forums in April. “Students are very diligent when it comes to investigating. [They] are going to be asking questions at the open forum,” he said.
The finalists’ proposals were only initial blueprints from which to work, and all committee members interviewed agreed there was room for changes and discussion. “In terms of big things like renovations, there’s a lot of flexibility,” senior Housing and Dining and RFP Committee Member Brie Abbe said.
Goldsmith noticed that some of the titles for sections of the dining hall could be offensive. “Cheesy plays on Chinese words will not make it,” he said.
Choices in meal plans and the price of dining were two issues of concern for students. The finance plans had not been completed and Gross recognized the possibility of rising costs. 
“The two things we’ve heard from students historically are they want better food, fresher food and they also want lower prices,” said Gross, who said the two requests often contradict. “One question we have for students is if it was much, much better, would they pay more?”
Goldsmith said he hoped the new meal plan would create more flexible meal plan options. “We hear repeatedly of how unfair it seems to off-campus students to have to be full participants in the plan. I would hope that this process would enable us to begin addressing this very real concern.”
Glynn was less convinced that meal plans would change quickly. “[The companies] aren’t going to be the ones that decide that, the school is. It’s really something that’s tied to economics. It’s not ‘We want everyone on-board so fuck all of you,’” Glynn said, adding that Housing and Dining has worked on the issue for a long time. 
Glynn said she hoped the possibility for off board plans would become a reality in a few years. “It comes up at every meeting.”
Abbe said that although she did not expect students to be able to go off board next year, more flexibilty was possible. “I think that people will find that the structure of their meal plans will be different,” Abbe said.
Goldsmith, Gross and LaFond were all optimistic that the process would improve dining at Oberlin. “I think we should be optimistic. The purpose of the process was to find a means of bringing our dining service and its quality, value and responsiveness to a new level,” Goldsmith said.
Glynn was also positive about the possibility for change. “I’m really optimistic about the proposals that were put in front of us. I thought they looked really exciting and really fresh,” she said. 
Abbe was not as positive. “No matter how you cut it, the food’s going to be institutional,” she said. Yet, Abbe was impressed by the proposals and thought dining at Oberlin would improve. 
Compared to Marriot’s proposal, Abbe thought the finalists, “had a whole different theory about food, and a whole different theory about dining. Hopefully, the improvement will be significant.”
“We want to raise the bar. We want the best dining program possible. We’re taking this very seriously,” LaFond said. 

For the latest update on this story, see pg. 2.