It has not been a good semester for Dining Services.
With the success of off-campus vendors like the Freshgrocer and Philly Diner, the University is feeling the pressure to move quickly on plans to change the face of dining on campus.
This semester, 1,500 fewer students signed up for meal plans than did last fall, despite the new mandatory requirement that all incoming freshman purchase plans. Sophomore meal plan participation is down 30 percent, and junior participation is down 10 percent.
And even after last spring's controversial freshman decision, Dining Services is still only operating at a break-even level.
Part of the decline can be attributed to the closing of Stouffer Dining Hall this summer, which has left Class of 1920 Commons and Hill Dining Hall to take on the burden of serving the student body. Stouffer was closed as a result of the combining forces of financial instability and lowered student demand.
However, with only 2 percent of graduate students signing up for meal plans as well, it seems that the problems with Dining Services run deeper than the dining halls themselves.
Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery said the different living options and price sensitivity of graduate students makes that market a difficult one to capture. He added that while it is steeper than in years past, the dropoff in sophomore participation is to be expected.
"It's been historic and typical that particularly where there hasn't been mandatory dining for undergraduates, there is a dropoff between freshman and sophomore years," Nunery said. "By sophomore year, you have a better sense of the choices available."
Those choices for students have been dramatically expanded within the past few years. Campus dining halls are now forced to compete with low-cost dining options that offer a wide range of prepared food.
The increase in retail spots has been compounded by an increased desire for upperclassmen to seek off-campus housing in both West Philadelphia and Center City.
"There are so many more amenities," Nunery said. "The migration of a number of students off campus means that they are less inclined to eat in a dining facility."
Although Nunery said the University is currently focusing on the issues of quality, convenience and price of campus dining, some retailers say Penn has a long way to go.
Freshgrocer General Manager Dan Sutcliffe said he believes the "one-stop shopping" that his market offers is an big advantage.
"I don't want to throw jabs at the University, but I don't think they have the same quality," Sutcliffe said. "We have everything [students] need."
Administrators from Dining Services declined to comment.
One of the issues confronting Dining Services is finding a middle ground between the needs of students and the academic mission of the University. When the college house system was implemented five years ago, campus dining halls were intended to play a major role in developing community among students living on campus.
However, with the rise of low-cost options on 40th Street and the increased popularity of off-campus housing, the dining halls may not play the same role in fostering community on campus that they once did.
"At the same time, the customers are looking for more options and more flexibility," Nunery said. "Our challenge is to find a way to complement the residential system here."
Nunery said that the University is undertaking a complete review of its retail food plan, and they have already brought in an external consultant to develop new ways to serve the undergraduate and graduate communities.
One of the ideas that has been put on the fast track is a points system where students can use their PennCards to buy meals at a number of local retailers. Similar plans have met with success at other urban universities, and Nunery said he believes a system could be implemented as early as next fall.
"What we're looking at is the way that the PennCard system works so that we can give people more flexibility but still use the single system," he said.
The University has already contacted some local vendors about the possibility of a points system, where students are allowed to put money on their student IDs to be spent at local vendors. Most of those who the University has contacted support the idea.
"We are looking into the process of that," Philly Diner Manager Alex Abdul said. "It will bring more business in. It will also make us more a part of the University."
"I'm in favor of it," Sutcliffe added. "It would probably be the best situation."
Nunery cautioned that although local retailers are anxious to get the project off the ground, there is still some work to be done before the technology is in place to make such a system feasible.
"If the infrastructure isn't there, there's a lot of things that happen once that card gets swiped," Nunery said.
