By Michael Kennedy
“As a student, I’m really just disappointed,” said Student Government Association President O.J. Oleka about the new dining hall being constructed next to the University Tower Apartments. “As a payer of the meal plan fee, I’m quite outraged. As SGA president, I’m doing everything I can to make sure we get as many services as we can as a remedy…”
The construction of the 12,000 square foot facility has faced months of delays. Originally scheduled to open in January, the first students won’t walk through its doors until June.
“Whenever you’re building something of this nature, unless you’re really good, you tend to run into some construction problems and revisions to plans and architectural drawings,” said Matti Verder, resident district manager of Sodexo. He said the project has faced numerous cost revisions. He attributes six weeks of the delay to extreme weather events.
When opened, the westside dining facility will be all-you-can-eat, requiring students to swipe their Cardinal Cards upon entry. There will be five restaurants owned by Sodexo inside. Since Sodexo has more control over the menu than in other restaurants on campus, Verder said there will be healthy meal options for students.
“A lot of other benchmark institutions have facilities like this,” said Krista Woltermann, SGA services vice president. “I remember when I was an incoming student; I toured a lot of places that had similar facilities. And we are kind of lacking that right now.”
Woltermann said she didn’t find out until late November that the opening was being delayed.
“When I figured out that something was going wrong, I mentioned to Larry Owsley, Mitchell Payne and others that I was going to have a serious problem with it, and students were going to have a serious problem with it, and I was going to start coming up with incentives,” said Woltermann.
Woltermann requested that Sodexo provide students with other dining alternatives, in lieu of the new dining facility. Sodexo agreed to expand the Basic Pantry convenience store, as well as add a small deli and an Einstein’s Express to the west side of campus.
“This is an item that Krista brought up, in light of needing something in the spring,” said Larry Owsley, U of L vice president for business affairs. “But it is also something that we’ve been talking about for some time, in terms of the convenience store.”
The Basic Pantry convenience store is moving from University Tower Apartments into the first floor of Louisville Hall, in a space currently occupied by a computer lounge. Verder tentatively anticipates it will open on Feb. 28. A Sub Hub deli shop formerly occupied the space on the first floor of University Tower Apartments, and it will reopen in that space when Basic Pantry relocates. Verder said Sub Hub will take longer to reopen, but “we’re hoping before the end of the semester, for sure.”
Basic Pantry will partner with United Natural Foods to provide students, particularly residents with kitchens, with the ingredients and recipes necessary to make healthy meals.
Sodexo has yet to finalize a location for the Einstein Bros. Express, but is hoping to open it in the Business School. Since it is not a full-scale Einstein Bros., no food will be prepared on-site, but it will be brought over from the Einstein Bros. in the Humanities building.
“It will alleviate a lot of the traffic in the Humanities Building and it will also create options for students over there,” said Woltermann. “I’ve heard from a lot of business students that they have an awkward 15-minute break and sometimes they only have a 45-minute lunch. And the lines are just too long for them. And they just don’t have the time.”
While the new dining options will almost certainly please students, these students were expecting the new dining facility promised to them when the meal plan came into effect.
“The benefit is that we’re getting fresher, healthier options on campus, but it’s as a result of a failing of Sodexo to provide students with the services that they offered to them,” Woltermann said.
Oleka agreed, saying: “Last year, student government went to bat so much, so hard for this new meal plan and Sodexo. And time after time Sodexo is proving themselves to be negligent on their duties.”
Last April, McAlister’s Select opened in the basement of the Miller Information Technology Center after months of delay. Verder attributed most of those delays to asbestos found in the building. However, he denies delayed openings are a trend for Sodexo facilities.
“Of the projects we’ve built and committed to: Jazzman’s Cafe opened on time, Damon’s and Einstein’s opened on time,” Verder said. “With McAlister’s and westside dining, we’ve had a lot more construction-related issues, which caused delays which are unforeseen.”
Right now, Verder anticipates the contractor will hand over the westside dining building to the university in April, and it will be open for summer school students and conferences by June.
