To eliminate nearly $1.1 million of its current deficit, Dining Services may increase its dining plan contract fee by about $100 for Fall 2010, Duke Student Government President Awa Nur announced Wednesday.
Currently, undergraduates pay a $19.50 dining contract fee each semester. But Nur, a senior, said Vice President for Campus Services Kemel Dawkins and Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst have presented a plan to implement the one-time $100 fee to make up for the deficit.
The plan is not finalized, as Executive Vice President Tallman Trask will review the proposal later this week, Nur said after the meeting.
The decision comes after year-long discussions with administrators during which Nur and other student representatives worked to voice student interests, cut costs and improve food service, Nur said in her address.
“We are still fighting, but we are kind of tired of arguing back against crazy ideas and crazy solutions for a problem that has existed for four years, and I don’t understand how Dining didn’t anticipate it,” Nur said.
For the last few years, Dining has faced a $2.2 million deficit that accrued after it increased workers’ salaries in 2005 and switched to Bon Appétit Management Company in 2007. This year, Dining was able to reduce the deficit through administrative and “inside” changes, including reducing the number of workers, Nur said.
Nur said she and Chief of Staff Mike Lefevre, a junior, suggested that Dining re-evaluate all of its vendors and reconsider those that are not turning a profit. She added that there is too much competition between Bon Appétit—which runs eateries like the Marketplace and the Great Hall—and third parties like The Loop Pizza Grill and Merchants on Points vendors.
“Dining should have been treated like a business this whole time by the University but it hasn’t,” Nur said. “I am sorry to say that it has been very poorly mismanaged.”
After the meeting, Nur said her discussions with administrators were in vain because of the decision to raise the fee.
“I think they wasted their time,” she said. “The question shouldn’t have been, ‘Who is going to pay this $2.2 million?’ It should have been, ‘How are we going to restructure Dining?’”
In other business:
Senators passed a resolution supporting the creation of a trial that would potentially allow freshmen to spend their unused Marketplace breakfast swipes on lunch at Chick-fil-A or Subway.
Athletics and Campus Services Senator Douglas Hanna, who proposed the resolution, said Wulforst was open to such a trial, but he might limit it to a certain percentage of freshmen. Hanna, a freshman and Chronicle staff member, added that the trial would most likely take place after spring break.
“Jim’s verbage was hesitant but enthusiastic,” Hanna said. “He said something to the extent of, with student support, he felt it would be very feasible.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Spencer Eldred, a senior, presented a resolution requesting a formal meeting with Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta concerning the change in move-out date for West Campus residents to May 10 from May 17 after students had signed housing contracts.
The resolution, which the Senate passed, outlines some of DSG’s concerns with Moneta, including RLHS’s ability to “change the housing license at any moment without notification or rationale.”
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