By KATIE MEYER
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Sodexo responded to student concerns about the hours of operation of different campus eateries based on demand. (Photo by Qinrui Hua/The Ram )
2013 has been a year of change for Fordham dining. Following negotiations that took place after a yearlong review of Sodexo, administrators decided to keep the food service provider, on the condition that they made some changes.
And change they did. With the addition of Così and Panda Express, among other things, Sodexo’s food quality garnered generally favorable reviews from students at the start of the fall semester, according to a brief survey conducted by The Ram in September, featured in Volume 95, issue 12.
However, other aspects of Sodexo’s service have not been so readily accepted.
Brendan Francolini, GSB ’14, executive vice president of USG, has noticed that a common complaint among students is the odd hours kept by some on-campus eateries.
Francolini was closely involved in the dining services selection process last year. As chair of the Dining Services Student Engagement Committee, he represented the students’ voices throughout the process, and since then, he has paid close attention to student feedback about dining services.
“I have heard about some students discussing their dissatisfaction with hours of operation at certain dining locations since the beginning of the year,” Francolini said, noting that several student clubs brought these complaints to the attention of Dining Services.
“For the first two months of the school year, USG kept Dining Services on our weekly senate meeting agendas to bring up students’ issues with their food service,” Francolini said. “This feedback was then passed along to the Student Culinary Council. During those discussions, hours of operation was an issue that came up, and, though I am not sure about the specifics, I know that Fordham Dining is making adjustments to the hours at key locations in the future.”
The hours of the Starbucks in McGinley Basement are commonly criticized. Along with Panda Express and Jamba Juice, the Starbucks is open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
John Azzopardi, Sodexo’s Resident District Manager at both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, said that these complaints have not fallen on deaf ears.
“We have … received feedback from students asking that we open the Starbucks earlier and we are in the process of reviewing this feedback and analyzing our current breakfast hours on campus,” Azzopardi said.
Starbucks’ late start has been partially attributed to the presence of other coffee options on campus with longer hours.
“Così at Campbell Hall offers a great line of espresso drinks as well as the new ZeBi at Faculty Memorial Hall, so the Dagger John’s [Starbucks was]…left similar to last year,” Azzopardi said.
That is not the only thing holding Starbucks back, however.
Kate Russell, FCRH ’16, a member of the Student Culinary Council (SCC) at Fordham, said that logistical and operational issues also stand in the way of expanding hours.
“Because of Starbucks’ location with Panda Express, it complicates the cleaning and space preparation process,” Russell said.
Despite this issue, she maintains that change could still come. “In regard to Starbucks, the SCC and Sodexo are working to change the hours,” she said.
When considering any service change, Azzopardi says that Sodexo pays close attention to data gathered from different on-campus dining spots.
“We look at traffic patterns such as where dorm rooms are located and class locations to help determine where we can best serve the students,” Azzopardi said. “We also use sales data to show us how each location is performing throughout the day and use this information to help decide on hours of operation for the semester.”
Azzopardi said that student feedback is also a “very important tool” that Sodexo uses to determine hours. He brought up the previous service changes in The Marketplace as an example.
“We received great amount of feedback in prior years [saying] that students felt [The Marketplace was] not open long enough to allow them time to get a meal after late classes or from Athletic practices…As a result we decided to add extra hours of service this year,” he said. “We can now look back over this semester and look at how many students on average take advantage of the extended hours and continue to look at opportunities on how we can best meet the needs of the students.”
