Dartmouth Dining Services may reorganize many of its services this fall including new menus for Collis Cafe, the elimination of catering services, price changes in Full Fare and a new 24-hour vending area.
"We've taken a look at the whole dining services program. Five or six concept changes are being planned for next year. We're looking at all possibilities," Director of Dining Services Pete Napolitano said.
Collis Cafe could have direct changes in its menu, which Napolitano said have been discussed for awhile.
"When I talked to students about Collis, food service didn't jump out," Napolitano said. "Collis is a meeting place, a gathering place ... The menu should complement that. The current menu doesn't do that. The current menu says that this is a place to grab a whole meal."
The Collis governing board has finished compiling input on the idea of changing Collis Cafe from BlitzMail surveys sent out to students several days ago.
Collis received about 500 responses, said Associate Director of Student Services Linda Kennedy.
"Collis is supposed to be the heart of the campus," Swift said. "That heart should be able to provide a full meal, but if any changes are to be made, we should be asking how students felt about it."
Several surveys were conducted using BlitzMail, first on the Student Activities BlitzMail Bulletin Board and later through the residential cluster BlitzMail Bulletins, Chris Swift '98 said.
"About one-sixth of the people on campus responded," Swift said. "We had an even spectrum among classes and other groups."
The survey reported that about 300 out of the 500 respondents wanted to keep Collis the same whereas only 20 surveyed wanted to change Collis completely.
"59.8 [percent] think that Collis should remain the same," Swift said. "That is a finding. A 500-person survey is a serious survey."
About 59 of 123 respondents said they ate at Collis daily. When those who wanted some change were asked what they wanted changed, the majority responded that they wanted Collis to be "not so weird."
"They wanted food that was less exotic," Swift said. "This seems to be the number one change across the board. It's worth noting that the second most selected choice was for same services but with slight change. And that the most commonly selected change was for food simpler than it is now."
"We've been talking to different student groups," he said, citing the Student Assembly, Dining Services, the Collis governing board and the Collis roundtable discussions.
"We've been bouncing off ideas and concepts," he added. Some of the ideas he mentioned include an expansion of the bakery program and the gourmet coffee line, and the addition of fresh squeezed juices.
A new addition to complement the warmer seasons, may be ice cream, yogurt, shakes or something "cool, refreshing, light and low in fat," Napolitano said. Soups and sandwiches would still be offered, Napolitano said, but not in the same venue.
"We've gotten a little stale," he added. "The menu is exactly the same before as after the renovation. It's gotten tired. We are losing sales."
He said Collis managers are still discussing potential changes.
"The Collis people are still theorizing and mulling over the ideas," Napolitano said. "Some feel that this change is long overdue, while some feel we shouldn't touch the menu altogether. We're just shuffling the deck."
It was the focus on student customers, Napolitano said, that led to the proposal to eliminate the catering business currently offered by DDS.
"We've made the decision to eliminate the catering business effective September," he said. "You get stale doing the same things and some things have to be eliminated. We are providing service to students. The resurgence in the Medical Center, Skiway and golf course is what dining services is doing."
"We will leave catering to the Hanover Inn and Byrne Hall," he added.
As far as Full Fare is concerned, Napolitano said he wants to "retool and reinvent the whole concept of an all-you-can-eat place."
"We've been tossing a lot of ideas around," Full Fare Manager Peter Shanahan said. "What happens is that the meal plan is here and will still be here next year. We need to provide an all you can eat plan for those who buy 14 or 10 or 5 punches."
Shanahan said students complain about the price.
"Full Fare serves, basically, an athlete," Shanahan said.
The number of people eating at Full Fare have dropped drastically, Shanahan said. "We've lost almost 33 percent," he said.
"I feel we offer excellent quality," he said. "We don't know how to get the message to the students."
One of the proposed additions is a "vending lounge" in the basement of Thayer Dining Hall. The vending lounge, Napolitano said, would occupy the space that formerly housed the Hovey Grill.
"One of the things we want is a 24-hour a day, seven-day- a-week operation that is easily accessible," Napolitano said. "A space that will have vending, video games, et cetera."
He said the machines in the vending lounge would accept a student ID card.
"There will be upscale vending," he added. "It's in a central location and it's convenient. We had to be able to control the security level. Thayer has 18 security cameras and an all night custodial staff. Access and egress are what we are working on now."
