EDITORIAL: Be clear about Dining decision

Administrators must be sure to convey the same message as the companies they are speaking with. But right now, it's not clear where administrators are in making that decision. While Penn officials claim the visits are part of the "request for information" stage of an ongoing study on campus dining, the president of Bon Appetit reports his company was asked about its interest in submitting a bid. The exclusive discussion about the decision to outsource management of University buildings to Trammell Crow Co. spawned campus-wide outrage over the lack of sufficiently broad consultation. The administration seems to have heeded some of the complaints about the way that deal was handled. Working with University Council's Dining Services committee is a positive step over the closed-door meetings that characterized the Trammell Crow deal. And administrators seem more willing to answer questions this time around. An open process, however, must be balanced with a concern for not making employees unnecessarily nervous about their jobs. To avoid this anxiety, administrators must make sure they are conveying the same message as the companies they are speaking with. If they are asking companies for bids, that should be made clear. And they should be straightforward about what stage of planning they are in. Additionally, to reassure the University community, before any deal is announced administrators must release concrete figures on how much money outsourcing dining would save the University, how many jobs would be cut and how many employees would be affected. The secrecy surrounding the Trammel Crow deal could not have been good for employee morale. As administrators continue to consider dining and other outsourcing options, they must ensure that employees are getting a clear picture about what's going on.