The Journal

Issue date: 11/8/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamie Ford Students dine in Marletto's Marketplace Nov. 6. Campus Dining Services chose six students to help them with issues patrons face in eating on campus.

"There's no better way to make business decisions than through the people you're serving," said Brad Woodroffe, Sodexho dining service manager for Webster University's main campus.

That's exactly what Student Affairs and Sodexho Campus Dining Services plans to do at WU through a newly selected Student Board of Directors for food services on campus. The board is comprised of six students from many different backgrounds who will meet at least once a month to go over the dining and food services on campus.

"This will result in better communication between students and servers," said John Ginsburg, director of the University Center and Student Activities. "It's an opportunity for students to better understand the dining services and for improvements in the dining services that are student-driven."

Sodexho already has a National Student Board of Directors, which set up seven values that all the venues across the country follow, Woodroffe said. These values are authenticity, communication, empowerment, entertainment, comfort, flexibility and trust. Through a local board of directors, these values can be easily met and evaluated at a local level, he said.

"Members of the board will also be reporting to the Residential Housing Association and the Student Government Association so that the community and students can keep informed about what's going on," Woodroffe said. "This is a huge way to reach out to the students, through the students."

Sarah Tetley, the assistant director of Housing and Residential Life, helped select students from those who applied to be on the board and is assisting in setting up the meetings.

She said this new board will be helpful in bringing in feedback to dining services and moving towards improvement. She said the students have already discussed ideas they would like to work on including sustainability issues, being more "green" and providing more vegetarian and vegan options.

From November 5 to 9, the board will help conduct the National Association of College and University Food Services customer satisfaction surveys. Sodexho will use the surveys to get an idea of what the students' ideas and needs are for dining services on campus. Because it affects all students on campus, faculty and staff wanted to be sure to select a wide range of representatives for the board.

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