Newspaper Page Text
The Maroon Tiger
THE ORGAN OF STUDENT EXPRESSION SERVING MOREHOUSE CO^ ~E SINCE 1898
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Vol. 74, No. 11
‘Don’t lose sight in your dogged pursuits.
Thursday, March 28,2002
Morehouse in talks to replace Gourmet Services, Inc
Campus News
H.J. Russell’s newest
project brings new eco
nomic possibilities to the
West End.
Page 3
Features
Read SGA candid
profiles before ca 1
your vote.
Page
Features
It’s back ... The Ma
roon Tiger Ebon
Awards for the rich
and infamous.
Page 8
Students respond as college officials court European multi-national company with sordid past
Geoffrey R. Bennett
Editor in Chief
gbennett@maroontiger.com
One down ... three to gp.
Sodexho, the food service mono
lith that partnered with Clark At
lanta University last June, plans
to do the same with Morehouse
and the two other undergraduate
AUC institutions say company
representatives.
In the weeks following a
visit to Chivers-Lane Dining Hall
by Sodexho officials, rumors have
circulated concerning the fate of
Gourmet . Services Inc.,
Morehouse's current food service
provider. Last week, Omari
Young, Morehouse director of
auxiliary services, confirmed the
news.
"This is not a rumor," said
Young. "This is true. Right now
we are talking with Gourmet Ser
vices and Sodexho about an im
proved plan for next year and
subsequent years."
Young continued, "We are
looking for improvement in food
services regardless of who pro
vides [it]. We are having discus
sions with the current operator
and with another vendor."
However, according to
Mary Higginbotham, Gourmet
Services food service director, the
current cafeteria staff has been left
in the dark concerning recent de
velopments.
"We haven't been notified,"
Higginbotham said. "There was
only talk after the people from
Sodexho toured the cafeteria."
Other cafeteria employees
have gone on record to express
their disappointment, saying that
morale has dropped as their cur
rent employment with Gourmet
Services remains in limbo.
According to Chivers-Lane
student manager Sam Williams,
Morehouse's contract with Gour
met Services expires in 2005.
"Anything else would be a
breach of contract," said Williams.
"Regardless of the politics of the
situation, the people that work in
the cafeteria are our extended
family. We cannot and will not
stand by and watch them get
pushed out."
According to Young, how
ever, the college is "looking for a
higher rate of satisfaction" as it
relates to service and quality of
food in Chivers-Lane.
SGA president C.J. Graves
said, "In a recent report submitted
iary services at Clark Atlanta Uni
versity, Sodexho has a record of
client satisfaction.
Woodard said that the insti
tution ended their contract with
Gourmet Services in 1995 and later
improved. It's improved a great
deal since I came here. They have
a greater variety, and it tastes a
little better. It's a lot more mod
ern, but they've been making
changes since I've been here."
"[Sodexho]
has gone over and
beyond the com
mitment they
made to the cam
pus," said
Woodard.
While
Sodexho, a
French-based
multinational cor-
See GOURMET Page 16
their stock last June due to height
ened public pressure, the com
pany was a leading investor in the
Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), the biggest pri
vate prison company in the coun
try.
While Sodexho had ties to
the CCA, a corporation cited for
inhumane prison conditions, stu
dents mobilized at universities
across the country to kick the
Sodexho off their campuses. In the
course of a year, the campaign
against Sodexho spread to over 50
colleges. Student protest com
pelled four universities to cancel
Sodexho contracts.
At Ithaca College in
New Yorj£«students occu-
pied administrative of-
fices for thirty-four hours
demanding termination
of the contract. Similar
protests took place at the
State University of New
York (SUNY) in Buffalo,
SUNY Albany, Oberlin
College in Ohio, Colo
rado College, Xavier Uni
versity, and Evergreen
College in Washington.
According to
sources that created the
watchdog website,
eyeonsodexho.org, the
company has a sordid
history of unlawful em
ployment practices.
For example, the
federal Occupational
Safety and Health Act of
1970 requires employers
to maintain a workplace free of
recognizable and reasonably cor-
Morehouse students show support for Gourmet
Services employees.
poration, might be committed to
quality food service, it has made
several questionable socio-politi
cal commitments. Before selling
to the Morehouse Board of Trust-’
ees, Gourmet Services received
low ratings after student surveys
were compiled."
However, in an exit poll con
ducted last week by The Maroon
Tiger, 72 percent of respondents
said they were satisfied with the
quality of the food and service pro
vided in the cafeteria. In addition,
Gourmet Services scored well on
The Maroon Tiger student satisfac
tion conducted November 2000.
"This is a home away from
home for our students. If they have
needs or make suggestions, we try
our best to accommodate them,"
said Higginbotham. "We always
get compliments from both stu
dents and staff."
Williams said, "We just had
the COOL conference on campus
and hosted 1,200 college students
from all over the nation. An over
whelming number of them said
our cafeteria was much better than
theirs."
Nonetheless, according to
Terry Woodard, director of auxil
switched to Sodexho.
"We felt we needed
to change the program at
CAU," said Woodard. "We
wanted more variety for
the students and healthier
choices. We wanted food
not cooked in grease, so they
changed the whole cooking style
for us. We wanted a convenience
store, and we now have a dining
hall in Bumstead. We wanted to
see a lot of marketing. We wanted
to see the sanitation elevated in
terms of how clean the place is,
plus we wanted to see the em
ployee morale increase," he
added.
Woodard claimed that stu
dents are pleased with the
Sodexho's program.
"Our students seem to be
much more happy. Some of our
students who are returning stu
dents and do not have mandatory
meal plans want meal plans," said
Woodard.
Jacqueline Buckley, a senior
at CAU said, "In a lot of ways, it's
In a recent exit poll conducted by
The Maroon Tiger,
72% of students
said they are pleased with the
service and quality of food
provided by
Gourmet Services, Inc.