Student Concerns: Food service bids to be heard soon

BY BRANDON WANLESS
Cardinal Staff

As Saint Mary’s University continues deeper into the last weeks of 2009, student life continues to become more active and usually more stressed as well. With this, on the other hand, many great things are able to be accomplished on campus, often at the hands of SMU students. One way that students are able to be further involved is with the ever-increasing relationship between students and Chartwells food service.

It is true that this is seen primarily in the longstanding work of student representatives (the author being your current rep). Now, additionally, as Chartwells and other food service companies make bids for the servicing contract which would take effect next year, one or two students will be a part of that decision-making process.

Correspondingly, SMU Student Senate held a “Food Service Forum” recently to gather input from the student senators and any
other students who wished to express their wants and needs. The ideas and preferences from this forum will now be utilized as the student perspective in that bidding process. Further updates regarding the results of this process will be forthcoming.

Regarding the frustration among a number of students in regards to cardio equipment in the RAC, the current issues have been communicated and are in process of resolution. A deeper problem, however, is the fact that many issues, especially with cardio and weight room equipment, are not addressed by the users in the correct manner.

Often, when a treadmill, for example, no longer turns on, it simply is not used and many people know not to use it. No one, for
some reason, decides to report the problem. So, to combat this, I write to make known the proper notification policy. Basically, all it takes is a 30-second phone call to Nikki Fennern, SMU Athletic Director, at ext. 1638. The number is posted in the RAC for this reason. So, in the future, please just call and leave a message with Nikki.

For these and all issues, suggestions or complaints pertaining to Chartwells food service, athletic facilities (RAC, pool, gym, etc.), campus facilities, Residential Life or Student Development, please e-mail them to ugstudentconcerns@smumn.edu.