Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
April 5, 2002

Dining unit to be managed by residence

by Anne Krapfl
In a reversal of a decision made nearly two years ago, Iowa State's new campus dining services will be directed and managed by the residence department. In June 2000, after several studies, ISU leaders made the decision to create a new auxiliary unit (part of neither the Memorial Union nor the residence department) that would report directly to the vice president for student affairs.

The change in that decision is necessary, vice president for student affairs Tom Hill announced March 18, because of strict bond repayment requirements. Residence hall dining must stay with the residence department in order to honor some of those requirements, he said. The residence department will operate the merged unit -- created from residence dining, Memorial Union food service operations, all campus vending and catering, and Scheman Building food service -- under a management contract with the university.

The revised organizational structure will include a campus dining board of directors, Hill said. That board, along with the new director, will develop both a strategic plan and a business plan for the new unit. The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, will approve those plans.

The new director will report to Randy Alexander, director of residence. Two candidates, Richard Berlin III, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Jonathan Lewis, University of Maine, Orono, interviewed for the director post last month.