Metaphors abound in describing the trickery recently perpetrated by SMU Dining Services. It is a Janus, deceiving the student body; it pulled a neat magician’s trick, feigning with one hand while the other conspired and corrupted behind the scenes. It brazenly lied to Student Senate, in person on several occasions no less, and may rightly be judged slothful and insolent in the extreme. We have been RFoC’ed.
On Jan. 25, SMU awarded a seven-year contract to Aramark Corporation to provide dining services on campus. This includes everything from our dining options such as Umphrey Lee and Mane Course to the meal plans. This was a near criminal act on multiple levels.
Student Senate first raised the issue of the dining services contract last academic year when it became known that Aramark’s current contract expired this year. Senators, on both a personal level and as representatives of their constituents, expressed displeasure with Aramark’s services, particularly the meal plans, which they felt were too limited. Senate expressed a desire to see additional meal plan options as well as a refund check for unused meals. These concerns were shared personally with representatives of both Aramark and SMU Dining Services when they visited Student Senate on multiple occasions. Senate was given vague assurances that the issues and comments would be paid heed, but as we can see now, these were merely a smoke screen to hide what was really happening.
Furthermore, Student Body President Katherine Tullos requested that senate be kept in the loop regarding the contract bid process and was told that Dining Services would be sure to do so. When no response from them was forthcoming as the contract bid deadline approached, and after repeated inquiries from Tullos were ignored, senate wondered what was truly happening.
Now we know. SMU Dining Services likely had no intention of garnering other bids for providing dining services. If they did, why did they not keep senate informed? They have developed a cozy relationship with Aramark whereby they both benefit, the students lose and nobody is the wiser.
Why should you care about this? Put simply, administrators lied to and ignored us and shirked their responsibilities toward us. They have allowed Aramark to continue to fleece you out of thousands of dollars.
Each student could save that much on dining services by subscribing to an appropriately sized meal plan and receiving a refund check at the end of the year. Now, though, for the next seven years, we will be robbed blind and be utterly powerless to stop it. After all, they must reason, what’s another few thousand dollars to a rich SMU student?
The situation becomes more dire when we take into account that Dining Services is just one of many departments among SMU’s Byzantine bureaucracy, and they at least have an advisory board, even if it is ignored. What about the departments whose everyday functioning and decision-making we never hear of, such as External Development or athletics? What decisions are made in these innumerable and faceless offices without taking the students into account?
I am not condemning these offices prima facie nor am I calling for absolute transparency and disclosure; to do so in the first instance would be unfair and presumptuous, and in the second impractical in the extreme. I am concerned, however, with how many of our tuition dollars are wasted not only in big events and decisions but among everyday choices as well. How easy is it to blend into the bureaucratic background and pretend as though decisions have no impact on students?
Ultimately, that is what it comes down to. Every choice, big or small, made on this campus by any person involved in the administration of this school impacts us, the students, on a personal level. Yet how tempting is it to rationalize and obfuscate when your victims are not in front of you?
Though it may seem trivial, Dining Services has victimized us. Not only will you and I have to continue to pay exorbitant fees for service with a sneer, but I can also guarantee that I now have a healthy dose of skepticism about the altruism of every other administration member on this campus, and you should, too.
To limit this damage, I call upon Vice President for Student Affairs Lori White to conduct an investigation into this sham. This is the only way to bring justice to this travesty and ensure that apathy toward students is not endemic in the administration.
About the writer:
John Jose is a sophomore finance and economics major. He can be reached at [email protected].
