Staff Editorial: Making change for the better

It's been a long time since there was reason to compliment Penn's Dining Services.

After years of students watching their peers at other schools swipe their IDs at off-campus retailers, meal plan enrollment at Penn took what seemed to be an irreversible dive. The all-you-care-to-eat style of dining just wasn't appealing enough to hold a crowd, and students struggled to find places that would take their Dining Dollars.

But since Aramark took control of the beleaguered operation last summer on a one-year contract, there has been more reason to believe that upperclassmen won't dump their meal plans once they leave the Quad.

Over the past year, Aramark has done extensive research to see what appeals to the Penn community and which dining options work best in an urban environment. And rather than ignore the results of this research, Dining Services has gone the extra mile and implemented major changes.

The addition of Subway, now a veritable gold mine in the bottom floor of 1920 Commons, was a step in the right direction -- students said they wanted popular retail spots where they could use their PennCards, and Aramark delivered. Dining Services also quietly gave students the option of using their cards at Au Bon Pain, helping to make them campus hot spots.

Now, Aramark has announced plans to go even further. A deal is in place to bring three new vendors into 1920 Commons, including Chick-fil-A and an ice cream retailer. And next fall, all meal plans will switch from a weekly allotment to a declining number of meals for the semester, something that has long been more popular for upperclassmen.

It remains to be seen how Aramark performed financially in its first year directing dining at Penn. But initial fiscal returns aside, the efforts that Aramark officials have made to revamp dining at Penn should certainly have earned the company a contract extension.

Discussions for a long-term contract between Penn and Aramark have already begun, and we urge the University to bring back Aramark for at least another year. The efforts of Aramark administrators should be commended, and they might even lead Penn to a goal that has been so unattainable in the recent past -- increased meal plan participation.

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