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As part of a campus-wide initiative to keep the University of Maine on the cutting-edge, Dining Services will petition the Board of Trustees in March for a $20 million revenue bond to update its facilities. Major renovations are planned for Hilltop and Wells Commons, as well as an overhaul of the menus and meal plans.
Dawn Aubrey, project manager of the strategic plan for Dining Services, said she was excited about the plan.
“These are some awesome, awesome changes that will be taking place,” Aubrey said.
The members of Dining Services are partnered with Joyce Fasano, a consultant from the Cornyn Fasano group. The project was spear-headed by Robin Toderin, assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services, as part of a campus-wide initiative.
The first leg of the plan is to renovate Hilltop Commons. In order to complete the renovations, Hilltop will have to close, though no closing date has been planned as of yet. Major renovations have been planned beyond those that are cosmetic.
“We want more of a ‘marche’ concept then a food court [like the MarketPlace in Memorial Union],” Aubrey said.
The vision for the facility is a combination of retail dining with a convenience market, as well as an all-you-care-to-eat dining area.
Other changes that the UMaine community can expect to see will happen at Wells Commons, which currently houses a few drawing studios and a catering service. In the future, Wells will also add a conference center. There will also be a retail section, complete with convenience market and a bakery, where patrons can see bakers preparing the foods behind the store-front. There are plans to purchase a wood-fired oven for making pizzas, flat breads and other open-faced sandwiches. Aubrey said this will make the building more than a typical dining hall.
“The stigma of ‘commons’ is going to go away,” Aubrey said. “We’re hoping that Wells will become a location for students as well as alumni who attend the hockey games on that side of campus.”
Dining Services’ goal is to complete the renovations for both facilities by the fall of 2007, in accordance with the opening of the new fitness and recreation center. Currently the department is conducting a feasibility study through the Ames Company in order to evaluate both Hilltop and Wells for necessary renovations. The study, which will be completed this spring, will determine when the facilities will need to close.
“The renovations probably sound like they will take a long time – but they won’t,” Aubrey said.
Students can expect to see renovations to the MarketPlace and York Commons, in hopes to make the services easier for patrons and staff. However, Aubrey said these renovations won’t happen until after Hilltop and Wells are done.
Students won’t have to wait two years before they see changes. In addition to renovations to the facilities, an overhaul to the meals and meal plan is expected. Dining Services is reevaluating its hours of operation, as well as looking to maximize meal plan value.
“We want to update the meal plan to be more competitive as we have more offerings for students on campus,” Aubrey said. “Food services needs to be updated in order to compete with other campuses as well.”
Dining Services has been comparing the meal plans of UMaine with that of other Northeast land-grant universities, including Boston College, Cornell, and Boston University.
“You name it, we’ve looked at it,” Aubrey said. “Food services is an important component of a student’s higher education experiences.”
Part of these changes include offering more ethnic foods to students. Kathy Kitridge, assistant director of Dining Services, and Glenn Taylor, executive chef, have been planning several events for the dining commons in upcoming months, hoping to introduce students to more diverse foods.
“Dining Services should provide foods that expand students’ awareness and palates. Dining Services should provide and opportunity to expand awareness of the different foods available and be a learning environment, just like the classroom,” Aubrey said.
Another part of these changes includes a fresh-foods approach, where food is prepared in front of students with fresh ingredients. While not all commons are readily equipped to make these changes, Aubrey said the feasibility study will bring answers to these questions.
“The kitchen is going to move forward,” she said.
One change students will soon see is the availability of nutritional information of the food from the commons.
Laura Honeycutt, the department’s dietitian, has been working on a manual process of analyzing recipes and typing up individual sheets of each menu item that includes ingredients and nutritional information, she said. These sheets are being put into notebooks, and later next week these notebooks will be put in each of the dining commons. In addition, the nutritional information will be available on the Dining Services’ Web site soon. Eventually the Web site will have an automatic calculator for the nutrition content of all its recipes. There will be a kiosk at all dining services where patrons can look up nutrition information.
“[The project] is something I’ve wanted to do for years, but haven’t had the technology to do it,” Honeycutt said. “Customers want this kind of information and we’re finally going to be in a position to provide it. … I’m thrilled that we’ll finally be in a position to make this happen.”
At this time, planning has not been completed and Dining Services is still looking for student input. In February a Internet survey will be open to all students, faculty and staff. In addition, weekly meetings are held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Coe Room in Memorial Union, open to all who care to attend.
The Dining Services will know whether or not the funds will be available to complete the projects when the new budget is presented in June.
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