A decision on the fate of Dartmouth Dining Services has been delayed until tomorrow despite the College's previous plans to present a finalized meal plan in time for the Summer-term billing deadline today.
Case Dorkey '99, a member of the committee charged with determining the organization's future, said the group had hoped to reach a decision by last Thursday because the College is scheduled to mail bills today for students enrolled Summer term -- and the bills are supposed to include summer dining options.
But the group -- a collection of students, DDS officials and administrators -- was unable to reach a consensus, and with College Treasurer Lyn Hutton out of town, Dorkey said members were hesitant to rush to a hasty decision.
Hutton is scheduled to meet with the group today and they will reconvene talks again tomorrow, at which time the group hopes to formulate a final dining proposal.
In the meantime, Dorkey said Associate College Treasurer Win Johnson is deciding between sending out the College bills without the dining option or delaying sending out the bills until a final meal plan decision is made.
Dorkey, who is also a member of the Student Committee on Finance, said last week's meetings were to get a better sense of the financial position of DDS, in light of the results of a Student Assembly-sponsored referendum taken two weeks ago.
Almost 2,700 students voted in the referendum to determine the fate of DDS, and 93 percent favored cuts in dining services rather than increased required spending.
Most of last week's meetings were dedicated to projections on the future situation of DDS, Dorkey said. He said it is difficult to predict to what level DDS could reduce the cost of a required meal plan because there are unknown variables at work.
Under the proposal of an $800 required minimum declining balance account purchase, DDS stood to gain "a huge sum of guaranteed revenue," he said. If the required DBA were lowered, there would still be a large number of students who would spend greater than this amount, Dorkey said, which makes it difficult for DDS to accurately project its potential revenue.
Although the committee determining DDS's future "wants this resolved as much as anyone else," Dorkey said its members are being careful not to rush to a decision. He said too much hard work has gone into the process up to this point to rush a decision in the final stages.
Dorkey said DDS Associate Director Tucker Rossiter, DDS Fiscal Manager Don Blume, Johnson, Dean's Office Executive Officer Richard Heck, Dean of Student Life Holly Sateia and Collis Center Director Mark Hoffman were the College representatives present at the ongoing meetings.
Students representatives at the meetings included Dorkey, Rachel Bogardus '98 and Paul Holzer '00 -- the liaisons to the Trustee Finance Committee -- Assembly President Jon Heavey '97 and Vice President Chris Swift '98, Assembly Vice President of Communications Josh Green '00 and Assembly Vice President-elect Nahoko Kawakyu '99.
