Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 04 -September 25, 2013

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THE MIRROR Student newspaper Week of September 25,2013 Vol. 39, Iss. 4
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The Fairfield Mirror
Food service contract out to bid
Sodexo, Chartwells and ARAMARK are some of the food service providers that could potentially be chosen for next year. Photo Illustration by Tebben Gill Lopez/The Mirror
By Danica Ceballos
Executive Editor
In 1982, Fairfield's administra-tion
met to narrow down their five
options for food service providers.
After intensely debating between
the two final companies, Sodexo
was chosen over Saga Dining Ser-vices.
Over 30 years later, Fairfield
is beginning the process to renew
the 10 year contract that has been
in place since then.
The university announced that
the food service contract with So-dexo
is out to bid and a new con-tract
will be instated for the 2014-
2015 school year.
Assistant Vice President of
Administration and Student Affairs
James Fitzpatrick was involved in
the 1982 decision and identifies a
significant difference between then
and now, saying, "Thirty years ago,
I felt very comfortable that the uni-versity
administration could handle
this process on our own. The food
service industry, specifically college
dining, is really now a complex ani-mal."
- In order to better select a food
service provider, the university is
working with The Rochelle Group,
Ltd. (RGL), a consulting firm that
deals with college and university
dining operations and specializes
in Quality Assurance programs and
contracted dining.
Along with this group, stu-dents
from different campus or-ganizations
will be asked to give
their opinions on Fairfield dining
services.
"This is a great time to have
To see the administration
acting on one of the most
pressing issues over my
years here - and I'm sure
many before me - brings a
sigh of relief to our organi-zation.
- Alex Long '14,
FUSA President
the food contract out to bid, espe-cially
with all the transitions the
University has decided to make,"
said FUSA President Alex Long '14.
"To see the administration acting
on one of the most pressing issues
over my years here—and I'm sure
many before me—brings a sigh of
relief to our organization."
The process will begin the
week of October 14 and the univer-sity
hopes to announce the success-ful
bid company by March 1. A»_
While there has been some
controversy recently regarding
Fairfield dining services, the ad-ministration
explained that this
process has not been implemented
for a specific reason.
Fitzpatrick states, "There's
nothing that has occurred that
prompted us to push a panic button
and say, 'We have to do this.'"
Sodexo was informed about
the food contract bid in early Sep-tember,
meaning that every dining
event and update planned for the
year was decided on before they
knew about the potential change.
Sodexo's General On-site
Manager Bryan Davis explained
Sodexo's outlook, saying, "Our goal
as the dining partner on campus
is to approach our services with a
mindset of continuous improve-ment.
We don't wait for a contract
to expire to make improvements;
rather, we take a strategic look at
our operation each year and plan
ongoing changes to keep our pro-gram
and our team fresh."
The process of finding the
right dining company for Fairfield
READ STORY ON PAGE 3
More than $1,000 in damages were caused to this apartment during a
violent altercation in Dolan Hall. Salvatore Trifilio/The Mirror
READ DOLAN ON PAGE 2
Fall 2013 concert will
host two EDM artists
By Timothy Leach
Contributing Writer
On Sept. 19, the Fairfield Uni-versity
Student Association an-nounced
Bingo Players as the main
attraction for its Fall Concert.
Bassj ackers will open for
Bingo Players at the Oct. 19 con-cert.
Tickets are $25 for students
and $40 for guests. A new addi-tion
this year is that admission is
18 and over for guests, but all Fair-field
students are welcome.
Inevitably, reactions were split
among the students who heard the
announcement at "FUSA Palooza,"
the student organization's concert
reveal event.
"I don't think I'm gonna go,"
Myles Golymbieski-Rey '16 said.
"I have no idea who they are."
On the other hand, others re-main
optimistic that the concert
will be a good time.
"No matter who it is, it's al-ways
gonna be fun, because you're
going out with people and having
fun with friends. That's what it's
really all about," Matt Parenti '17
said. "I mean, [FUSA] must have
put a lot of time and research into
it."
For FUSA to organize and
book the fall concert, it had to
consider many factors.
Concert organizers Katie Do-nahue
'15 and Andrea Butler '15
surveyed students through email
about their favorite genres. The
last conducted survey resulted in
House music being a top pick with
rap music as the second choice.
FUSA then talked to an agent to
start booking.
"It's a difficult process that
people don't really realize," Do-nahue
said. "If somebody says
they're in Europe or out West,
which is what we came across a lot,
you have to start from square one.
We probably went through eight to
ten artists."
FUSA started in May, and
communication between agents
typically took a week. The Bingo
READ STORY ON PAGE 2