U. officials considering UA food truck proposal

In response to the Undergraduate Assembly's recent proposal to extend the operating hours for food trucks, Facilities Management will conduct research over the next few months to evaluate current policies.

"We will consider what [the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly] and the UA have asked us," Vice President for Retail and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik said, "and look into studying the [various aspects associated with] demand... for food trucks at night."

"If there is a demand and we can work through the operational issues, we will talk to the vendors and revise the conceptional issues of our contract," he added.

In 1998, the City Council passed a vending ordinance that required a contract to be signed between the University and the city concerning vendors in Fresh Air Food Plazas. These areas include 37th and Walnut streets, 33rd and South streets, 34th and Spruce streets, 34th and Walnut streets and 40th Street.

Trucks located on 38th Street and those outside of the Quadrangle are not affected by these changes because they have leases with the city and consequently have not been affected by recent University crackdowns.

The five-year agreement concerning Fresh Air Food Plaza vendors ended last July, and food truck vendors recently signed annual contracts with the University.

The new contracts contain a clause that requires vendors to close their businesses by 6 p.m.

"We are only enforcing in earnest what we signed with the vendors," Blaik said.

Blaik also expressed his sentiment on the current student speculation over the administration's actions.

"There are those out there who are convinced that we are somehow looking to run vendors off campus, and I wanted to take the opportunity to say that food trucks have always been a part of our retail offerings and we want to continue that," he said. "Nothing pleases us more than having hard-working vendors who offer food" from well-run venues that meet health standards.

Yet GAPSA Chairman and Wharton MBA student Rob Alvarez expressed disdain with the University's response.

The administration's stance "puts the issue on the wrong side," Alvarez said, and explained that he believes it is not the students' or food truck vendors' job to justify a demand.

"We are very pleased and thankful for the UA's position on this issue," he said. "However, we originally asked that a University Council committee meet to study the broader issues with this situation and for the policy to be suspended in the meantime."

Alvarez said that he believes food truck "owners should ask the administration why these policies should exist."

"If the students did not want this, the trucks would go out of business by themselves," he added.

Despite these concerns, however, the GAPSA chairman remains hopeful about reaching a solution with the University.

"We're extremely optimistic... that the administration will realize that these policies are unjustified, don't make sense and run contrary to the idea of having a [Council] committee look at the broader issue of this policy," he said.

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