Dartmouth Dining Services held a vendor food show in Food Court this past Tuesday in an effort to gauge the response of Dartmouth students and other DDS customers to a variety of new food options that DDS is considering for the upcoming school year. With 21 booths featuring over 75 items to sample -- including lobster bisque, organic chocolate milk and gourmet ravioli -- students and customers were invited to complete response sheets after sampling the various items. The black bean spice patty was the most mentioned item on the response sheets, Beth Difrancesco, the DDS purchasing manager, said. It was followed by the prepared whole grain salads. The food show was hosted in conjunction with Roma Foods, DDS's primary vendor, and also involved staff and managers sitting down to discuss how each of the new foods could be incorporated into the current DDS menus.
Katherine Burke, the acting associate dean of the college, will become the dean of students at Montana State University starting in the fall of 2008. Burke began working at Dartmouth in 1987 as a staff attorney. Since then, she has served as director of community relations, a dean for undergraduate classes and deputy director of programs for equal opportunity and affirmative action. Burke is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and the University of Maine School of Law. Burke will not begin her new position until 2008 so that she can remain with her daughter -- who will be a senior in high school -- and complete her one-year position at Dartmouth said an MSU vice president for student affairs. While MSU awaits her arrival, the tasks she would normally oversee will be completed by several different officials at the university.
The federal Small Business Association recently approved a grant of $231,000 to the Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, enabling the center to double the size of its 32,500-square-foot plant. Located at Centerra Resource Park in Lebanon, N.H., the center was opened in October 2006, and has already reached 100 percent capacity. The center has generated approximately 50 jobs, and its recent plans for expansion are the result of demand from a number of start-up businesses. These prospective businesses seek space, as well as guidance in basic business practices from experts at the Tuck School of Business and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network. Once businesses become more established with the help of such counseling services, center officials hope that they will stay located in the Upper Valley and bring jobs to the community.
