Students, faculty, and members of St. Thomas University’s faith community remain frustrated over the decision that forced the campus faith community out of its home of nearly 50 years.
Announcements about changes in meal plan/cafeteria access and turning the chapel into a common space have come while students are away from school, surprising and angering many at STU, though it appears the plans have been in place for at least a couple years.
In summer of 2013, STU renewed Aramark’s contract. The administration would not provide details of that agreement though a number of schools, including the University of New Brunswick, make their food services contracts available online. The Aquinian has filed a right to information request to get details of the contract.
The school waited to announce the change to an “all-you-care-to-eat” plan until May 5, 2014, which was a little more than two weeks after exams ended and students left. Before the fall term began, administration postponed the decision until the fall of 2015 amidst pushback from students and faculty who use the space to meet.
This winter break it was revealed the GMH chapel was going to be relocated to make the plan work, after it was leaked through a Letter to the Editor in the Daily Gleaner. The students would have their social space, Aramark would implement its new service and a chapel would still be located somewhere on campus.
But questions remain about the Aramark contract, and, ultimately, whether these changes will have a net benefit for the STU community.
Aramark spent $915,000 refurbishing its dining areas before the school year started. The JDH lounge was funded, at least in part, by a $250,000 donation from the Sir James Dunn Foundation. Consultation is under way to find out how much it will cost to renovate the Holy Cross House conference hall into a chapel, and the current GMH chapel into a communal space.
Brandon University in Manitoba underwent the opposite change, from all-you-care-to-eat to a “declining balance” plan like STU has now. The school has similar enrolment and residence occupancy numbers to St. Thomas, with 1,800 full time students, 300 of which live on-campus. At STU, a quarter of its 2,000 students live in residence.
Paul O’Driscoll, BU’s food services manager of over 30 years, said they tried to serve all-you-care-to-eat and cash customers at the same time to save communal space, but it didn’t work because all-you-care-to-eat customers were upset about the lack of options.
“Moving to a declining balance probably made it easier to operate one facility that served both groups: the res students as well as the off-campus ones, plus faculty and staff, of course,” said O’Driscoll.
Neither food plans are without faults. With a declining-balance meal card, students can run out of money, and the food service provider will throw out more food. With an all-you-care-to-eat plan, students lose flexibility in their eating (though STU will have a declining balance account attached for snacking) and space is lost for students without the plan.
STU has given their reasons for allowing Aramark to change the meal plan, but there is a downside to the changes, and given the questionable timing of the announcements, many in the STU community still feel they deserve to know more about how and why these decisions were made.
