Janelle Patterson
jp004@marietta.edu
As students settle into their spring semester schedules, dining routines once again must be adjusted. Students recently voted on two new dining plans proposed by Parkhurst and put forth by the Student Government Association to address the issue of lack of sufficient dining hours. Currently, during several hours on the weekends there is no food available for meal exchange on campus.
The plans were developed from several meetings which took place between student representatives, Parkhurst, the Marietta College cabinet, and other administration members with control over the school’s budget. According to Vice President for Student Life Dr. Robert Pastoor, one meeting took place before the close of term last year along with three meetings this month.
After the most recent meeting on Jan. 28 Taylor Myers provided an update on the task force’s progress. The results from the extended hours proposal showed that 254 students were in favor of Plan B over the 105 student vote for Plan A. Plan B would extend weekend hours at Gilman to brunch from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. with continuous dining available from 1-5 p.m. and dinner held between 5-7:30 p.m.
Now that the dining task force has agreed to move forward with this plan, the students must now look to Vice President of Administration and Finance Dan Bryant for the final numbers. According to Myers, the student body will have confirmation of further progress by Feb. 16 and if the college can find the funds to support this initiative, see changes as early as Spring Break.
When asked to contrast working with Parkhurst versus Chartwells, the campus dining service that preceded Parkhurst, Myers said, “I’ve been involved with dining reform since freshman year. I definitely see a lot more positives from Parkhurst administration and leadership than Chartwells in the sense that Parkhurst has an open door policy. I don’t think that Chartwells really did — they could say they did— but they would never do things to go out of their way to get feedback.”
Pastoor also noted the difference he has noticed working with Parkhurst from the previous dining company, Chartwells. He said that in comparison, working with Parkhurst has been much more customer service oriented and “they really want to do everything that they can… they have been much more willing to make changes when we’ve suggested them.”
According to survey reports collected by the incumbent general manager Adria Handley, satisfaction has continued to increase across the board for all of the dining locations since Parkhurst arrived on campus in the Fall of 2012. Current general manager John Shaffer says that the first year on a campus, those high ratings are expected, but to continually have increasing satisfaction for three years is almost unheard of. District manager of Parkhurst Paul Weinberg attributes this continuing success to the company’s standards on customer service and food quality.
“We talk to a lot of students everyday… and we put them, our visitors and their happiness first,” he said.
Weinberg’s only concern is the status quo. He said that when it comes to all of the surveys put out by the SGA and the comment cards collected by Parkhurst, they only get to hear from those willing to be vocal. However, he wonders how many students are satisfied with the current dining hours and options and how many are not making any suggestions because they don’t go to places like the cafe or Izzy’s. With that disparity in mind, Weinberg says all that Parkhurst can do is follow the college’s requests with accurate estimates of cost and let those in administration decide who pays for the changes.
In response, Myers said that in future surveys SGA plans to include an option for no change.
“One thing that we want to start doing is that any time we put surveys out, we’ll say an option is for no change at all, but if you want no change you have to respond.” He went on further to say that at the end of the day it is the responsibility of the students to get involved and to be informed.
Pastoor says that the dining task force will continue to meet and work towards meeting or compromising with the proposals brought forth in December by the SGA committee. To date, the progress made on that initial proposal includes the plan to make a separate committee within SGA to solely focus on dining, the elimination of the five-year price freeze suggestion, and a guarantee from Parkhurst on the continuance for the long-standing tradition of Finals Breakfast each semester.
Myers also said the task force is now working to include the Health and Wellness Center in a plan to provide more education on food portioning and healthy lifestyle in the coming months.
