Following Suit

I found a pretty good article today on outsourcing college dining when I was at the library today. It was discussing the views on a deal that Texas A&M made in 2012 with a company called compass that was based out of North Carolina. Their situation was very similar to what the University of Kentucky is going through with Aramark.

               The article explained that much of the initial protest came from the staff that was currently employed by Texas A&M. Many employees worried that they might not be hired by this new company or whether or not their benefits would be the same. So therefore in the contract struck with Compass one of their big points was that 100% of the university’s staff would be hired. This quieted most opposition to the deal. This is very similar to what happened at UK; the university made sure that its current employees were given jobs and taken care of.

               The other negative that was brought up was whether or not the students would be supplied for in this deal. When the company started its operations that fall, students noticed much more variety and quality of food. On the other hand the prices of food went up, and according to the contract Compass had the right to raise meal plan prices by 3% each year for the 10 year contract. Because I’m a freshman this year, I haven’t been able to notice a change in the food at UK. In Aramark’s first year under this new contract they actually lowered the price of meal plans.

               Texas A&M was one of the first universities to hand over their dining services to a private company, but it sure wasn’t the last. Now nearly two years later the University of Kentucky is jumping on the bandwagon and is actually benefiting even more than Texas A&M did in its first year.

Mogilyanskaya, Alina. "An Outsourcing Deal As Big As Texas May Have Even Wider Appeal." Chronicle Of Higher Education 59.17 (2012): 25. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Sept. 2014.