The Student Government Association’s Sodexo Resolution was passed by consent last week, which means that President Chance Johnson can move forward with efforts to make the requests a reality on campus.
The resolution includes six requests, some of which made the Top 10 list of issues on campus during the STAR Summit last year.
Johnson said:
We actually sent a draft of the resolution to Nirali Mickow, who is the director of food services on campus, and I essentially gave her and her staff a chance to look it over. We hope that, in the next few days, we’ll be getting a response from them about the possibility of setting up negotiations here in the next few weeks.
Mickow was unavailable for comment regarding SGA’s resolution at press time.
- One of the requests is that information in the Sodexo contract relating to student concerns be disclosed.
“We have questions pertaining to the policy proposals that are listed in the resolution and we would essentially like to know how the contract interacts with some of our requests,” Johnson said. “Hopefully that information will be helpful to us in pursuing specific policy proposals put forth in the resolution.
- Another request is to allow students to take hot food out of the cafeteria.
“One of the rules that I personally like the most is the idea of being able to take food out of the caf,” said Minh Ton, cellular and molecular biology sophomore. “I know that sometimes I just want to stay in my room, and not being able to take food out of the caf stops me from actually going there to get food.”
- Johnson said SGA also would like to see meal plans developed for students who aren’t able to go to the cafeteria as often.
“What we’d really like to see is perhaps a more equal disbursement between the funds that you pay for your meal plan going to more points in Alvin’s,” he said. “We want greater flexibility, not such a heavy emphasis on cafeteria meals.”
There is movement taking place in regards to developing new meal plans, Johnson said during the Senate meeting.
- SGA’s fourth request is to refund unused meals.
“I do see that as one of the bigger challenges for us to get implemented, but we’re doing right by the students by at least raising the issues and maybe opening up the idea with Sodexo of finding more ways for students to get a value from their meal plan that’s consistent with the price they pay,” Johnson said.
Johnson doesn’t know how this would work, but is optimistic that SGA and Sodexo can at least have a conversation about the possibility of refunds.
- SGA also wants Sodexo to allow other food vendors, such as food trucks, on campus for reasonable occasions, like small organization events. This was the No. 1 issue at last year’s STAR Summit.
“We’re sort of walking into uncharted territory here,” Johnson said. “I know while I’ve been involved in SGA and for at least a couple of years before, there hasn’t really been an attempt to do a comprehensive reform of the relationship between students and Sodexo.”
- The sixth request is for prices to be clearly displayed on pre-packaged items at Alvin’s.
Prices are displayed in Alvin’s behind the counter for hot food items, but there aren’t marked prices for things like pre-packaged candy, chips or drinks, Johnson said.
SGA officials don’t know the timeline for these changes to take place.
“I would like to have these issues resolved by the end of the spring semester, by the end of my term,” Johnson said. “So hopefully we can see some of them implemented by the end of the spring, but hopefully for sure by the beginning of the next academic year.”
Johnson said he thinks SGA will get a few of these requests through and that they have a compelling case to put forth, especially in changes regarding taking food out of the caf and displaying prices in Alvin’s.
“We feel like these are reasonable, common sense solutions to some problems that students have,” he said. “Based on our research, there’s no reason to think that it would be an undue burden on Sodexo for them to fulfill these requests.”
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