SA Dining Services Committee

SA Dining Services Committee

Meeting minutes for Friday, November 3, 2006 at Okenshield’s, Willard Straight Hall.

Prepared by Shane Sniffen and Mazdak Asgary.

Members in attendance: Name NetID Position Andrew Johnson atj4 Student Employee Voting Member Chelsea Clarke cmc255 Shane Sniffen ss475 Undergraduate Voting Member Richard Anderson rwa5 Colleen Wright-Riva cw223 Director of Dining Services Mazdak Asgary ma286 Undergraduate Voting Member Heather Levy hd122 Ryan Lavin rjl34 Victor Younger vby3 Nicole Rodia ncr6 Undergraduate Voting Member Mark Coombs mpc39 Chair Tony Kveragas ajk9 Steven Miller sm107 Keith Bodin knb8

The meeting began at 5:00pm.

Announcements & reports

Last meeting it was discussed to keep the dining administrative fee for students charged separately to the bursar or whether to include it in the price of the plan. A vote was taken, and it was decided to keep the charge separate.

New business/open floor

Mark introduced Andrew, who is the new employee representative on the committee now that Emma has a Friday night shift.

Ryan, an ILR representative from the SA, came to talk about creating a new dining location in Ives Hall. He suggested a small-scale venue, such as a caf�. Colleen said that this suggestion has come up in past years, but the reason why a new location was never added was because it was not expected to bring in enough revenue for CU Dining’s purposes. Dining could, however, help to upgrade the existing vending options. Colleen mentioned that the Johnson Art Museum’s caf� is able to operate because there is only one employee for it, whereas an Ives location would require increased staffing and thus increased cost.

Mazdak asked whether the hot dog truck outside of Day Hall is part of CU Dinging, and Colleen confirmed that it is. The truck is only out parts of the semester depending on demand. Dining has to balance high traffic at these sorts of locations with high enrollment in meal plans, Colleen explained. Thus Dining tries to consolidate facilities as much as possible. Colleen noted that there will be food services in the renovated Mann Library.

Unfinished business

Mark reminded the committee of the Farm-to-College produce program and restated that the committee has a choice of 1) tabling the issue, 2) recommending continuation of the ad-hoc committee or 3) recommending an SA charter change to create a permanent committee on the subject. Chelsea said she had heard Donna, who introduced the issue last meeting, was considering not trying to form the task force under the SA this year. Mazdak recommended not making a charter change, and proposed to table the issue. Nicole seconded. The issue was tabled.

New business

Colleen raised the issue of alcohol sales through City Bucks. Initially no students were allowed to buy alcohol through the program, but after the first year students over the legal drinking age have been allowed to buy alcoholic beverages with City Bucks. Last year the Presidents Council asked the DSC to reconsider that policy and to change it back to prohibit purchases of alcohol with City Bucks, but the DSC rejected the request. Colleen asked to hear the current DSC consensus on the issue.

Nicole noted that students are still free to use their own money to buy alcohol, so that reinstituting the ban probably would not affect student drinking habits. Colleen said that one primary concern was that parents would be putting money into their child’s City Bucks account not knowing that the student is using some of those funds for alcohol.

Nicole asked whether reinstating the ban would negatively affect the success of the City Bucks program, i.e. if restaurants would become less interested in participating. Colleen said there would probably be some complaints. Addressing Mazdak’s questions, Colleen said that the student’s age is not currently screened by CU when making purchases of alcohol with City Bucks, and in fact CU does not have knowledge of whether a given purchase was of an alcoholic product. City Bucks can be used at some convenience store locations which sell alcohol. Students are able to see City Bucks transaction histories, but not parents without the student’s permission.

Mazdak stated that he personally would be frustrated as a server if alcohol were not allowed under City Bucks, as this would complicate paying the bill. Andrew noted that parents have to trust their children to use their City Bucks funds wisely. Nicole suggested giving parents a disclaimer about the possibility of making alcoholic purchases, and Colleen says this is already in place.

Mark summarized the committee’s feelings by saying it recommends continuing to allow alcoholic purchases through City Bucks, and Colleen said she will bring that finding back to the council.

Next Richard talked about the new dining facilities to be installed in West Campus. Jansen’s, J’s Crossing and J’s Express will all close this semester and next semester will be replaced by a convenience store, a grill/sandwich location, and a new dining hall in Hans Bethe House.

Colleen addressed the question of why so many dining halls on West are needed by explaining that this is part of the Residential Initiative, which includes the idea of each house having its own dining location, and that it’s not a reflection of Dining’s need to consolidate dining locations.

Colleen explained to Mazdak that the reason why North Star’s convenience location is open later than West’s is that there is simply more traffic. Richard said that an additional concern of keeping facilities open later on West was the need to deal with inebriated customers.

Andrew expressed the opinion that the types of foods available at the West dining locations are more or less the same, and asked if any diversification of meal options could be put in place. Richard said they have been trying to do this with specialty nights, house dinners, etc. but that the concept of dining on West Campus is simply different from that on North.

6:15 p.m. � Richard stated that we should look for modifications with regards to the standard setup and variety of food available in the dining halls that will be in the fourth and fifth houses of the West Campus Residential Initiative. For example, one of the houses may feature a Korean Barbeque station, but all houses will retain the basic four-station setup.

6:16 p.m. � Mark asked that the discussion regarding the future of West Campus Dining be closed for this meeting due to time limitations, and asked members to vote on the top two items from the four remaining on the agenda that they wished to discuss. 24-Hour Dining Options and accepting Big Red Bucks at the Temple of Zeus were the highest vote getters.

6:17 p.m. � Mazdak began discussion regarding 24-Hour Dining Options. He stated that students have expressed interest in having at least one dining location open 24 hours a day on campus, either on Central or North Campus — while Central would ideally be the best, North Campus seems to be most feasible because Bear Necessities is located there. Mazdak stated that he investigated this issue last year, and that it is quite feasible at Bear Necessities because given the hours that it is currently open, it would only add only 3 hours of labor — there is a door that may be used to access just Bear Necessities when the gate in RPCC is closed, and there are Facilities staff in RPCC 24 hours a day anyways, so the Bear Necessities portion of the building can be kept open.

6:20 p.m. � Richard stated that he would love to extend the time because dining has seen a trend that students tend to eat later, especially on weekends, and would like to determine if this trend would continue into later hours. One problem he noted was determining if current staff wished to work those late hours (keeping in mind they must be under 40 hours a week total) or if new employees would need to be hired. Also, he noted limitations about what would be available in the freshly-prepared food stations because he stated that not all of the stations (sub, pizza, grill, fryer) can all be kept open 24 hours, due to maintenance and staffing.

Colleen stated that she is also interested in testing the concept of a 24-hour dining location, but logistics and employee safety are two concerns for her. Also, she raised the same point about which freshly prepared food stations would be kept open. She stated that this could see a pilot phase during study week at the end of this semester.

Mazdak stated that regarding security, Cornell Police could be asked to frequent there because their calls tend to die after 4 a.m. Also, he noted that Facilities is in the building 24 hours a day regardless.

Richard noted that one problem is that the side doors that lead customers out of Bear Necessities lack outside handles, so if that were to be used as an entrance because the rest of the building would be closed, they would have to place handles on that door. Also, Richard stated that they would have to work out making the one bathroom Unisex because it currently is a Men’s Bathroom.

Regarding Central Campus 24-hour dining, Colleen noted that the dining facilities within Uris and Olin Libraries are not owned by Cornell Dining, and that they need to close an hour before the library itself closes so that employees have time to shut down the unit and clean it before the building is closed. She did admit that it would be the best location for 24-hour dining but that the libraries would have to be amendable to the idea.

Richard asked the committee which menu items they would like to have available 24 hours a day at Bear Necessities. Colleen and Richard reiterated that they are both amenable to a pilot program at Bear Necessities on North Campus.

Mazdak asked what logistical problems could be encountered, and what foods can’t be served 24 hours.

Colleen stated that they would have to speak with Information Technologies because the system that tracks Big Red Bucks and all other on-campus payment options resets itself at 3 a.m. currently, and then downloads and computes all transactions from that day.

Colleen and the Cornell Dining Executive Chef stated that the sub station, pizza station, and the cashier station could be kept open. They stated that the grill would be too extensive to keep open. The Chef also noted that the fryer would have to be closed because the oil needs to be filtered daily.

The Chef noted that chicken fingers etc. that are made in the fryer could be made in the pizza oven instead, if the desire for them existed.

Mazdak asked why these healthier options aren’t already available.

Colleen/the Chef noted that this is because it would compete with the pizza that would have to be cooked using the pizza oven regularly.

Mazdak stated that he will conduct a survey of his residence hall to determine which stations students would like to keep open 24 hours.

6:35 p.m. � Temple of Zeus

Mazdak presented the issue, asking a very simple question — Why doesn’t the Temple of Zeus accept Big Red Bucks?

Colleen stated that she approached the owners of Temple of Zeus two years ago to ask them to accept Big Red Bucks, but Cornell Dining stated they would charge a commission on all BRB transactions. Temple of Zeus was not amenable to this because they did not want to raise their prices, and there was no negotiation attempted on their behalf.

Colleen stated that their prices are lower than Cornell Dining’s because they have much less of a cost structure — they don’t give their employees benefits, they don’t pay a union wage, etc.

Mazdak asked Colleen what the commission percentage was.

Colleen stated that it was no greater than 10%.

Mazdak asked if something similar to Mac’s would be setup, regarding how BRBs are not accepted there after 2 p.m.

Colleen stated that Mac’s doesn’t accept BRBs after 2 p.m. because Cornell Dining wishes to drive people to dining locations that they own. They have an eight million dollar a year overhead cost that needs to be paid.

Mazdak asked how one may go about petitioning Temple of Zeus to change their policy regarding accepting BRBs.

Colleen stated that she is no longer inclined to approach them and ask them to accept BRBs because Cornell Dining has now planned around the fact that they don’t accept BRBs since their conversation two years ago. She would rather drive people to Green Dragon Caf� in Sibley.

Mazdak asked how a private group can own space in the university’s academic buildings, and who one would have to go to so that their policy regarding BRBs may be changed.

Colleen stated that the deal with the university was made more than 18 years ago, similar to that of the Hot Truck. Colleen suggested consulting with the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences to petition the Temple of Zeus.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:48 p.m.

End of meeting, Nov. 3.

Respectfully submitted,

Shane Sniffen and Mazdak Asgary