The recently selected campus food provider, Chartwells, strives to provide “outstanding customer service to the students” by providing new and improved food options, affordable meal plans for residents and fast and efficient technological communication, according to Chartwells Regional Marketing Director Jared Levin.
Vice President of Business and Fiscal Affairs Mark Polatajko announced the selection at the WSU Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee meeting on April 11. The transition between the current provider Sodexo and Chartwells will begin over the summer. Levin said that all of the current dining plans and ideas are still tentative, as they have not yet been fully approved by the university.
Levin said that the organization noticed the long lines during busy hours in The Hangar, and said that their goal was to “spread the traffic out” by adding a Subway location in Millet Hall and a Starbucks in the Paul Laurence Dunbar Library (the Starbucks would not be implemented immediately).
According to Levin, The Hangar will add a self-service frozen yogurt stand, as well as a location that will freshly prepare and serve sushi. The proposal also includes a Denny’s location that will be open all night, which will feature a variety of cost efficient options.
“We know that Wright State students are very budget conscious,” Levin said. “It’s created specifically for the college market.”
Options being considered in the Union Market include the placement of a Tim Horton’s location where the Salvador Deli currently exists and a Jamba Juice in place of the Wright Cup location.
Though all ideas are still subject to change, Chartwells plans on providing a variety of block meal plans for residential and commuter students, which will consist of $8 for each block (meal). This system will be based on swipes of the Wright 1 Card instead of the current system, which distributes the dinning money as credit.
Chartwells also plans on offering half meal options ($4), which is designed for smaller meals and snacks, preventing students from overpaying for a less expensive amount of food. Levin said that Wright State would be the first University that Chartwells had ever offered the option to.
“I had not heard of anything like this before,” Director of Residence Services Dan Bertsos said. “We’re going to be breaking some ground here.”
Levin also said that the company would increase the use of technological communication by featuring a nutrition-informative mobile application, a system that allows food to be ordered online and a system where students can critique and make suggestions to the organization online.
