Renegotiation likely in ARAMARK contract

The College has enlisted the Campus Dining Review Committee (CDRC) to gather feedback from students on its contract renegotiation with ARAMARK Food Services. Not all of that feedback has been positive, and some students have begun to ask questions about alternative dining solutions, though those options may be limited.

Though student satisfaction has increased by 1.9 percent since 2007, it still lags behind peer institutions. According to the Vassar Senior Surveys, in 2010 45.4 percent of seniors were very or generally dissatisfied with Food Services, while 31.5 percent of seniors at peer institutions said the same. In 2007, dissatisfaction was at 47.3 percent, while only 18.1 percent at peer schools said the same.

One option to improve the dining experience on campus would be switching to an in-house dining service.

In 2011, the Princeton Review rated Middlebury College, which has an in-house food service, No. 6 in the United States for "Best Quality of Life" and No. 13 for "Best Campus Food." Vassar wasn't on either list.

Director of Dining Services at Middlebury Matthew Biette wrote in an emailed statement, "Our dining system is part of the College's comprehensive fee. We don't separate out the costs of a dining plan, board or other fees—all are lumped together with the tuition fee." The comprehensive fee, $53,420, is comparable to Vassar tuition, room and board: $54,480. However, without information on how much tuition is paid after financial aid, and how much money goes toward food services, it is difficult to determine how much the food program actually costs.

Biette touted independence as one way to maintain high dining standards. "Middlebury…is answering the needs of the College board of trustees/administration/students," he stated. "The contractor has those too, but more importantly, they have their own board of directors and shareholders to make happy. So, not all of your money is staying on campus with a contractor."

Conflicts between responsibility to shareholders and customer service have resulted in lawsuits against the University of Alabama, Auburn University, and University of Alabama at Birmingham, and their outside food vendors, including ARAMARK.

"Students at each school claimed the public universities were violating antitrust laws, illegally supporting private business, charging too much for the services, and wrongly converting their money into accounts that can be used like debit cards. They sued the schools and the contractors, which include ARAMARK Educational Services Inc. at Alabama, Compass Group USA Inc. at Auburn, and Sodexo Inc. at UAB [University of Alabama at Birmingham]." ("Ala. Court backs schools on ‘dining dollar' suits," 30.9.2011, Houston Chronicle)

Alabama's Supreme Court dismissed the case, though ARAMARK has been the defendant in a number of lawsuits over the past few years, many related to allegedly spending student dollars in a fictitiously high way.

Smith College also has a highly esteemed in-house dining program, with 11 dining locations and a variety of menus. Student satisfaction is a high priority. "Are our students satisfied—yes—however, they are always looking for more too. I meet annually with our SGA [Student Government Association] board, as well as have a student senate dining committee," wrote Director of Dining Services at Smith Kathleen Zieja in an emailed statement.

However, Smith's dining comes at a significantly higher price than Vassar's. Room and board costs $13,390 per person there, compared to $10,430 at Vassar.

It seems unlikely that Vassar would choose to take a similar route. According to Director of Dining Services at Vassar Maureen King, "The College doesn't want to be in the business of doing dining services—we know that." At the most recent Town Hall meeting on Oct. 3 in the second floor of the Students' Building, administrators concurred, doubting whether an in-house food service would be a viable option for the College.

King emphasized Vassar's Dining Services' cooperation with student groups when it comes to composting and alternative food choices. "There are some times when either student groups or our commitment to local products comes up; in general we make those decisions with college input," she said.

Any other outside vendor would probably come with similar advantages and disadvantages. King said, in relation to other institutional dining options, "I don't see how it could be a huge change."

An entirely new contract would take a great deal of time, and effort, to create. "A formal Request for Proposal process soliciting bids and presentations from multiple dining providers is a year-long process, one which requires significant time on the part of the committee the College would need to create to oversee and evaluate the bids," explained Assistant Vice President of Budget and Planning David English.

English went on to explain that the College used this process when it originally chose ARAMARK to provide food services. He explained, "The committee, which included students and administrators from several areas of the College, recommended ARAMARK as the best overall bidder, evaluating all bidders on cost, food quality (including on-site visits of several of the top bidders), sustainability and interviews with then-current bidder clients."

Since changing dining systems is virtually impossible, Vassar's administration and the CDRC have focused on improving the agreement between ARAMARK and Vassar. "We want to get very specific information on whatever issues students have," said Assistant Dean for Campus Activities and CDRC co-chair Teresa Quinn. "We're working toward being able to say, when we renegotiate the contract, ‘This is what students want."'

"We'll be submitting our report with recommendations in the spring, which will be used for renegotiating the contract with ARAMARK," she explained. "The focus group discussions, town hall meeting, surveys and informal discussions will help us to determine the terms of the contract renewal."

English, who will facilitate the contract negotiations, appreciated the CDRC's work, saying, "Whoever provides dining services knows that the relationship is built on a series of shorter term contracts and student satisfaction with the quality of food and service provided is very important to every vendor I've interviewed."

Quinn concluded, "I think often students have such strong opinions, and not just about dining, but they feel like they don't have a voice in the decision-making process."

"But here we're giving people an opportunity to be part of the process and make their voices heard."