Administrators announced yesterday that they had signed a one-year contract with ARAMARK to develop a short and long-term set of initiatives for Campus Dining Services.
ARAMARK -- a Philadelphia-based company that specializes in food, facility and management support services -- will work with the University over the next twelve months to assess the dining program and guide its retail ventures.
Under this temporary arrangement, the University intends to reevaluate its "all-you-care-to-eat" buffet style meals and consider other ways to improve Campus Dining's flexibility and quality. Administrators did note that the meal plans and the Dining venues around campus would not change with their decision to hire ARAMARK.
"The decision has been made to go with ARAMARK to provide campus dining services starting first with a one-year window of time to evaluate the entire Dining situation here on Campus," Vice President for Business Services Leroy Nunery said. "We then hope to move on to a more permanent contract with them."
ARAMARK -- which already works with the University to provide concession, management and vending services at various campus locations -- will be expanding its partnership with Penn by heading up Dining Services as well.
ARAMARK Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Neubauer said that he was excited about his company's new role.
"We look forward to working as a true partner with Penn to enhance the living and learning environment for students, faculty and staff so that Penn can focus on its mission of leadership and education," Neubauer said.
Over the course of the spring semester, University officials have been working closely with students to develop a set of goals for the overall improvement of Campus Dining for the 2002-2003 academic year.
In addition to requiring incoming freshmen to purchase only nine meals per week -- as opposed to the mandatory fourteen meals a week the previous year -- Dining Services also announced that it would be extending its hours and having its employees undergo compulsory customer service training.
According to University Business Services spokeswoman Amy Johnson, the decision to partner with ARAMARK was the next step in this series of resolutions.
"ARAMARK really specializes in producing food right in front of the customers and making wide-ranging, diverse menus," Johnson said. "These were a lot of things we heard from students."
ARAMARK will be replacing Bon Appetit Management Company, Campus Dining's current provider, whose contract with Penn ends this year. Bon Appetit signed on in March, 1998 to serve as the University's primary caterer and to advise Penn on Campus Dining restructuring.
During the term of Bon Appetit's contract, the company increased the diversity of the menus at Campus Dining facilities by adding features like Hill College House's "noodle bar" and custom-made omelets.
Overall, Nunery said that he was satisfied with the improvements that Bon Appetit had made.
"I think that Bon Appetit has actually done a great job in improving the quality -- that's what we wanted when they came on board thee years ago," Nunery said. "But we have also had some ongoing conversations with ARAMARK as a way to make sure we were delivering the best in terms of value."
ARAMARK will be using MarketMatch -- its proprietary evaluation system -- to make an initial assessment of Campus Dining.
Nunery said that this method of appraisal will be largely focused around whether Campus Dining should continue to implement its current "all-you-can eat" option.
"We're looking at ARAMARK as more of an evolving system for Dining, vending and the change from 'all-you-care-to-eat' to retail[a la carte options]," Nunery said. "We want to keep more in line with the trends going on at other universities around the country."
