Michelle Norton
Staff Writer
A new member was appointed to the University of Houston Campus Food Service Commi-ttee during spring break.
Deborah Gaines, president of the Black Student Union, was selected as the student replacement for former committee member John Erickson.
According to Vice President for Student Affairs Elwyn Lee, Erickson left the committee because of time constraints and personal reasons. Lee said Gaines is an appropriate replacement.
"She is very interested in the committee and has the time to dedicate to it," he said.
Gaines will have a little more than a month to catch up to the committee, which has been reviewing bids and researching food-service providers for about a year.
The 15-member committee will make recommendations to the UH System Board of Regents, which will ultimately select the company to take over UH's food-service contract.
Three companies are scheduled to present their bids to the committee on April 6 and 7.
Aramark, Chartwell's (a division of Compass Group) and Marriott Education Services have each done extensive research of the UH campus and students to compete for the contract, Lee said.
Less comprehensive bids have also been proposed by Hospitality Food Services for concessions at athletic facilities and Culinaire International for management positions at the Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management.
To help bolster the competition between bidding companies, the committee hired a private consultant.
"The last time we tried to get companies to bid, the results were not what we hoped for," Lee said.
The companies will be judged by their credentials, training programs and successes at other establishments.
"We will be looking at factors such as pricing, value, creativity, capital investments and hours," Lee said.
"We will look at their proposals from both a business and student perspective."
Also under careful consideration are several proposals by historically underutilized businesses. The state requires the university to consider HUBs - female- or minority-owned businesses - as potential candidates for the contract.
Once the campus committee makes the recommendations, Lee said, they will be sent to the system committee, which will ultimately select the company to be vendor for the entire UH system, excluding UH-Victoria.
The proposed date for the decision is April 15.
Once the company is selected and contracted, a UH-System employee will be appointed to oversee food-service operations at the university, Lee said.