Colleges in a campus enviroment have a unique responsibility in addition to offering a quality education; providing a high standard of living for their students. An integral part of any college living situation is the quality of the food.

The end of this academic year will mark the end of the contract between Brandeis University and Aramark, the dining services provider on campus. Brandeis is a unique dining services account because of the need for both kosher and non-kosher options, in addition to its lack of nearby alternatives. The attractiveness of the account, coupled with the student body's apparent lack of satisfaction with Aramark, may have been contributing factors that led the University to send out requests for proposals from outside caterers.

This board hopes the decision as to which food service company will be chosen will be made on the overall balance between quality and affordability, not solely on the price of each bid.  

In almost every facet of University operations, this board advocates for transparency-the dining service bid is no exception.

The student body has many opinions about the current dining services, evident by the near 50 percent response rate from the recent dining survey conducted by Senior Vice President of Administration Mark Collins, and deserves a voice in the selection process.
This board was pleased to see the administration steering initiatives like the dining survey and future open forum meetings about dining services, expected to occur in early spring.
However, attempts to include the student body in the selection process should not end here.
The results from the dining survey should be made public.

Additionally, condensed proposals from each food service company should be presented to the extended Brandeis community, facilitating the proper conversation that is needed for such a decision.

Initiatives such as these will lead to both a fiscally responsible and quality assured choice for dining services.

The current University dining services require major improvements and the upcoming selection process should bring those improvements to light.

We hope the University keeps the goal of improvement in mind when selecting a food service company, not just the bottom line.
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