Last week, the Yale Daily News reported that the university will be cutting ties with Aramark - the Philadelphia-based company which manages their dining services as well as Penn's - when their contract comes up for renewal in January.
If only Penn's contract with Aramark was coming up for renewal that soon. With freshmen forced to buy the meal plan, no doubt any Penn student could write a thesis on how the company is lacking.
For starters, the quality of the food is consistently mediocre. When you consider that fewer than 2,200 upperclassmen were on the meal plan as of the 2005-06 school year, this becomes self-evident. With unappetizing food, frequently rude service, poor ethnic options and shortages in peak hours, it's less than shocking that a vast majority of students gladly drop the meal plan after freshman year in favor of other, less costly options.
Indeed, Aramark's meal plans are shamefully overpriced and needlessly restrictive. The corporate behemoth may be profit-maximizing, but only because they annually lock freshmen into the meal plan against their will. It is insulting, if expected, that Aramark would seemingly rather line their pockets with fewer satisfied students than heighten revenue through improvements.
In fairness, Aramark has instituted some good programs in the past few years. They've begun to work with local food producers, dumped trans fat and brought well-known guest chefs to campus. But more needs to be done and Penn Dining officials are loath to criticize the company, at least publicly.
"Penn Dining is pleased with the services Aramark has provided," Barbara Lea-Kruger, spokeswoman for Penn's Business Services Department, was quoted as saying in the DP last week.
Lea-Kruger may be pleased, but Penn students aren't.Penn is in the fifth year of a 10-year contract with Aramark, but that doesn't mean the University has to accept the status quo. Penn can just as easily go in-house for dining management as Yale did, and it would be a shame if that leverage went unused.
If Penn Dining takes student concerns seriously, they should show it and pressure Aramark to be more responsive to student requests. If Aramark is uncooperative, contract renewal in 2013 doesn't even merit discussion.
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