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In order to compete with other Land Grant institutions in the Northeast, the University of Maine’s Dining Services has proposed a plan to make dramatic changes to the way it prepares and delivers its services. Most notable are alterations to both Wells and Hilltop Commons, as well as minor cosmetic alterations to York Commons.
Dining Services is changing the way students use MaineCard funds. Instead of using dining funds to order food for delivery on campus, meal plan holders will be able to transfer $75 of dining funds per semester to campus funds. Patrons will then be able to use campus funds in local business such as Hannaford, IGA, RiteAid, Irving, Spotlight Cinemas and restaurants, said Dawn Aubrey, project manager for the Strategic Plan for Dining Services.
Though students will no longer be able to use their dining funds to purchase off-campus meals for delivery, they will not be required to pay a 20 percent service charge on items purchased off campus with their campus funds, she said.
“This is definitely a win-win situation,” Aubrey said. “There will be no more 20 percent service fees. They’re gone. [Campus funds] will be treated just like a debit card.”
Students will be able to make unlimited deposits into their campus funds, and if they choose, they will be able to request that the school solicit their family members for deposits into their campus funds’ account.
“It could be that a student might have an uncle that they just love and want us to market to, and they might have five people they might want to market to,” Aubrey said.
In addition to the new-found freedom, Aubrey said restrictions that have been placed on the meal plans will be lifted as well. Students will be able to exchange meals for purchases in the Marketplace during breakfast and dinner, regardless of whether or not they choose the traditional meal plan or the block plan.
“We’re actually looking at just giving a dollar value to a meal and saying ‘go for it,’” Aubrey said. “In lunchtime, we can’t handle it though. There isn’t enough space.”
Also, some items might not be available for purchase with the meal plan, such as Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream or the Odwalla drinks due to restrictions put forth by the distributors, she said.
Next fall, all commons will be open for continuous service from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Though hot entrees will not be available all hours the commons are open, students who wish to eat items such as bagels or cereal will be free to do so any time the facilities are open, she said.
The convenience stores will change the way that they operate as well, expanding selections inside as well as offering exchanges for meals. Dining Services is looking at offering five or six items in exchange for a block or traditional meal, Aubrey said.
“If a student says they want five bottles of water in exchange for a meal [at the convenience stores], that’s okay,” she said. “Though we would prefer that they chose a well-balanced meal.”
The facilities will also be changing over the course of the next few years. During the fall of 2006 and the spring of 2007, there will be only two commonses open on campus: York and Stewart.
“Our goal is that when Wells and Hilltop open we would like to be at the point when we will have a pure debit card system,” she said.
Hilltop will close for renovations in May 2006 and reopen in fall 2007 with a new face and new purpose: inside will be a marche, with both a la carte and all-you-can-eat options, and a multi-purpose convenience store as well, which will branch out beyond the role of convenience stores currently on campus, she said. Dining Services hope that Hilltop could become a center on campus more like Memorial Union where students go to fulfill many of their needs.
“Memorial Union is at the center of campus, but it isn’t where students live,” Aubrey said.
Memorial Union hasn’t been exempt from scrutiny though, and students will see changes there as well. MarketPlace hours will be expanded next year, and offerings will be expanded as well, including a new Mexican concept restaurant to replace Taco Bell. Dining Services is looking at offering a “Sizzling Salad” bar, along with African, Brazilian and Vietnamese cuisine, she said. In addition, delivery on-campus will be available from ChowMaine and Salumaria.
Wells Commons is scheduled to close this fall and reopen in the spring of 2007. It will also undergo dramatic renovations. Dining is looking to change the structure of the building, adding a third story to house a large conference space. Currently Wells’ largest conference room holds 400 seats, while the conference room in planning should hold twice as many, Aubrey said.
“We want to keep these conferences on campus; a lot of academic departments have to go off campus right now because we cannot accommodate them,” she said.
She estimates that this happens about two times a month.
The first floor of Wells Commons will house a retail center with a brick oven, full-service bakery and tavern.
“The tavern will be a totally different type of operation from what we currently have on-campus,” she said. “This will be more like the Bear Brew or Pizzeria Uno’s.”
The goal of the renovations of Wells is to provide a location on campus for people to go after sporting events, rather than to a location off-campus. By providing an on-campus location, they hope to have a safer location for students with good food, as well as something to enjoy after the game, Aubrey said.
Ultimately the goal of these changes to the meal plans and to facilities are to make life easier for students, Aubrey said.
“When a student has their money to spend, they will spend if how they wish on what they wish,” she said.
