In a rare semi-public meeting of the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee, students, University dining officials and representatives of the Local 77 union-which represents dining services, housekeeping, groundskeeping and sanitation employees-met with officials from food-service giant ARAMARK Wednesday night to gather information on the company's potential management of four campus eateries.
Jack Donovan, Trinity '80 and president of the campus services division of ARAMARK, answered students' questions on a range of issues, including how the company might change food quality, food prices and employees' benefits.
Because dining will never be a top priority of a university like Duke, Donovan said, ARAMARK's specialized resources would benefit students. "I don't want this to sound like we have a cookie-cutter solution that we'll plug in. That's not true," he said.
A $7 billion company based in Philadelphia, ARAMARK could bring physical renovations, employee training and a more diverse menu to the four eateries owned by the University-The Great Hall, the Oak Room, the Marketplace and Chick-fil-A. "We're in a position now where we've made some strides in improving our core services, but we're not where we want to be. These core operations are losing ground to contracted facilities," said junior Jason Freedman, chair of DUSDAC and a Duke Student Government legislator. "Duke is a small institution. You can only have so many head chefs."
Jay Faircloth, director of ARAMARK's business development in Virginia and the Carolinas, was also at the meeting and outlined his company's preliminary plans for Duke, including converting Chick-fil-A into a diner and completely renovating The Great Hall's service area. He also suggested the possibility of replacing privately owned Trinity Cafe with Java City, a coffee chain owned by ARAMARK.
Donovan reassured students that current dining employees would be protected. Under the current proposal, employees would remain on the University's payroll or switch to ARAMARK and retain comparable benefits. Managers, however, would be ARAMARK employees.
Two representatives of Local 77 attended the meeting and expressed optimism at ARAMARK's proposal. Union Business Manager Michael Gibson specifically cited the company's flexible promotion policies and training resources. "We believe ARAMARK is a company that can certainly get that done. They have all the tools, resources and training to get things done," he said.
Although meetings of DUSDAC are ordinarily closed to the public, Freedman allowed The Chronicle and several non-member students to attend and hear Donovan's comments. Absent from the meeting was junior Jonathan Harris, who wrote a Feb. 23 column in The Chronicle arguing against outsourcing to ARAMARK. Harris and junior Snehal Patel said they had been invited to attend but then received an e-mail from Freedman demanding that they speak with him before attending. "I believe your commentary to be unfair and in some cases, factually incorrect. For many reasons, the methods you used, I consider to be deceitful and irresponsible," Freedman wrote in the e-mail, which was obtained by The Chronicle. "I would like to address these concerns with you before I give you my trust in inviting you to a DUSDAC meeting."
Last night, Harris expressed dissatisfaction with Freedman's handling of the situation. "It demonstrates the undemocratic nature of this process," he said. "[Freedman] is trying to ramrod this thing through without getting background research or allowing others to be fully informed about ARAMARK and what it would bring to Duke."
Freedman defended the process, saying he met with Harris for three hours after the meeting and has worked hard to gather opinion. "I have been open and I continue to be, advertising to as many people as I can through e-mail to attend the open meeting [Thursday night], and for those who can't make that meeting I've offered to meet one-on-one," he said.
Freedman used the meeting to help shape a draft of a DSG resolution that he will introduce at the March 21 meeting of the DSG Legislature. The resolution endorses outsourcing to ARAMARK but demands that the company follow DSG and DUSDAC requests.
Freedman took extra care to ensure Donovan's commitment to DUSDAC's authority.
"There has never been a DUSDAC decision that has not been implemented by Dining Services," he said. "There has never been a decision made that DUSDAC has not been consulted on. And ARAMARK understands that."
Donovan guaranteed that before any major decision, including price increases, DUSDAC would be consulted.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.