Wanted: short order cooks to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to approximately 30,000 hungry, tired and disgruntled students.
Why is this position so difficult to fill? Maybe because Aramark, the food service provider currently operating the University of Houston's dining establishments, has secured many large-market food contracts in Houston. After some discussion Thursday, the UH System Board of Regents extended Aramark's contract with UH until December 1998.
The regents said the extra time would possibly give other providers more time to put in their proposals. However, Aramark's contract has been extended six times since 1990. If they've not redeemed themselves or proved that they're good enough to be offered another contract, then it's about time to boot them out.
Why should UH let Aramark know the university really has no other options?
Aramark has been around and has established itself enough to scare almost all the competitors away. It's like marketers trying to tempt drug-store shoppers into buying the no-name generic antihistamine in place of their Benedryl. So why shouldn't UH do the same?
Other universities provide food services in-house. It could probably be done at a less expensive rate, seeing as how the university offers hotel and restaurant management and nutrition degrees.
The truth is, if administrators don't act on the opportunity to dump Aramark soon, students will be paying amusement-park prices for greasy imitations of food from rude employees.