The Louisville Cardinal
FEBRUARY 5, 2008
WHAT'S INSIDE
MULTIMEDIA
Blogs,
slideshows
online
Check outThe
Louisville Cardinal
online to read blogs
and view photo
slideshows.
www.Jouisvillecardinal.com
SPORTS
Back to basics for
sports editor
Check out Trevor Joel son's
column on what it was like
being a fan again.
See page 5
FEATURES
Black History
celebrated daily
Ricky Jones, Chair of Pan-Af­rican
Studies Dept., shares
thoughts on campus life.
See pageS
AE
' Ekstrom exhibit
showcases
Afghan photos
Students can see Af­ghanistan
through Jessica
Riordan's eyes.
See page 11
Visit us online for
more stories ~nj
photos: ~.,
INDEX
Briefs 2
Classified 10
Editorial 7
Entertainment 11
Features 8
Opinion 7
Sports 4
Weather 2
Web link 2
The independent weekly student newspaper at the University of Louisville since 19 26
www.louisvillecardinal.com VOLUME 82, ISSUE 19 • 12 PAGES, 1 SECTION
NS
CURTIS CREEKMORE/LOUISVILLE CARDINAL
University reviews Chartwells contract, food services for students
By Dennis O'Neil The Louisville Cardinal
It's a little past noon on a weekday and the line for Wendy's on the first level of the Student Activities Center reaches Outtakes
food services, nearly. 75 feet away. A student anxiously checks his watch, he has class at 1 p.m. Meanwhile, the group behind him is
looking for an empty table, but there isn't one in sight. These students aren't thinking about the university's food service provider,
but the administration is. In the future there could be dramatic changes in the dining areas on campus - or there may not be any.
The contract for Chartwells
Dining Service, the food services
provider for the University of Lou­isville,
is up for renewal in August
of this year. The contract is current­ly
under review by the university.
"We try to stay in a constant
state of review with all of our
conuacts and we are evaluating
Chartwells the way that we do all
of our service providers, looking at
the quality of their performance as
much as possible," Risk Manage­ment
Director Sonny Alunan said.
Though the university cannot
disclose its intentions regarding
the Chartwells conuact, both Alt­man
and Mitchell Payne, Associate
Vice President of Business Affairs,
expressed satisfaction with the rela­tionship
they have developed with
the food service provider.
"We share a responsibility and
mutual interest," Payne said. "Even
if things are dictated to them, we
uy to sit down with them and fig­ure
out a suategic plan for reaching
a specific end result."
Food service remains a hot but­ton
issue with the student body,
with some students expressing both
dissatisfaction and appreciation to­ward
Chartwells service.
"Recent improvements have
only been made in the face of an
expiring contract," junior Andrew
Murphy, a political . science and
psychology double major, said of
Chartwells. ''A food service provid­er
should offer variety in both price
and offerings."
"I feel that Chartwells tries
very hard to· please students," said
Chynna Hibbits, a sophomore
sports administration major. "Until
the state allows the school to build
a new facility, we are kind of stuck
with what we have, and that isn't
Chartwells' fault."
Dining Services Director Melis­sa
Pompa also pointed to a lack of
space as a hindrance to food service
expansion on campus. However,
she also feels that some students
may be unaware of Improvements
made to campus food service over
the past year, mentioning the pow­er
breakfast offered weekdays in the
Halftime Grille and the all-you­can-
eat dinner at the Cardinal's
Nest as examples.
''I'm encour~ed by the fact that
there has still been some growth
even though we can't add more op­tions,"
Pompa said. "It is important
that students know food service is
constantly evolving on campus. It
isn't set in stone and [students] can
have a voice in it."
Pompa is referring to the Food
Advisory Board, where both the
university and Chartwells receive
feedback from faculty, staff, and
students about campus food ser­vice.
Lauren Watkins, a sophomore
exercise science major, said that be­ing
on the board helps her to better
understand campus food service.
"I don't think contracting an­other
food service provider would
change things that much," War-kins
said. "There isn't much money
in putting more food options on
campus, simply because there aren't
enough people who live on campus
who will buy it."
However, "It is difficult when
you live on campus to only see the
same food options everyday," Pom­pa
said. But she contends that the
quality of the food offered is more
important than the variety of op­tions.
Murphy said one way to com­bat
the lack of variety on campus is
to hire more than one food service
provider. He said he feels the uni­versity
should not allow Chartwells
a monopoly, and that competi­tion
could solve food service com­plaints.
According to Altman, the uni­versity
has worked with multiple
providers before, but that it caused'
problems regarding resident meal
plans, citing the Baskin Robbins
CHARTWELLS see page 3
THE CONTRACT
.- The Chartwells Food
Service contract is cur­rently
under review by
t he university.
.- The university cannot
disclose their intentions
toward its renewal at this
time.
.- Chartwells Dining
Services Director Melissa
Pompa cited a lack of
space as a major hin­drance
to further food
service development on
campus.
.- University officials said
that recent budget cuts
have made food service
expansion more difficult.
Editorial 502.852.0663 • Advertising 502.852.0669 ©2008 THE LOUISVILLE CARDINAL, INC.
I (' jt