Student fees may be affected
The newly recreated UMC food service commission will be presenting the Legislative Council a financial review of the food services at the UMC after a serious study is conducted next spring.
“We plan on meeting before the end of the semester just to kind of talk about the basics and logistics of what the commission means and what the goals are, and in the spring we’re going to come back and really kick it into high gear,” said Sara Davine, UCSU Tri-Executive and member of the commission.
The commission will also be ordering a feasibility study from the CU facilities management to see how much a small-scale renovation of the Alfred Packer Grill and seating area would cost.
Right now, the commission consists only of Davine, Legislative Council President Boyce Postma, and Piers Blyth, chair of the UMC board. Carlos Garcia, director of the UMC, estimates that eventually the food service commission will have six to ten members.
Postma is confident that the small-scale renovation will happen.
“I know it will happen at some point,” Postma said. “It needs to be done, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.”
However, he said he is unsure of the availability of funding.
“Currently our student fees are rising $50 per year until they reach $400 per year to pay off the capital construction projects on campus (such as) Law, Business, ATLAS, and the new Arts Complex,” Postma said. “This has put a major strain on the student fees and raising them anymore is becoming painful.”
Garcia admits that the funding has to come from somewhere, but does not know how much it will cost students.
“(The renovation) will probably have a small student fee but we won’t know that until the food service feasibility study is done,” Garcia said. “We’re hoping to be able to fund some of it ourselves but we can’t guarantee that at this point.”
After the commission meets a few times and establishes its goals, Garcia will take the request for the feasibility study to the vice chancellor of student affairs.
“Once we’ve established the goals, then I write a request to the vice chancellor of student affairs to request to start a feasibility study on food services,” Garcia said. “(If) he approves it, we meet with Facilities Management. They will prepare the feasibility (study) for us.”
The Facilities Management consists of a campus architect and facilities planning staff that monitor any and all changes to the physical appearance of campus buildings. The feasibility study will be prepared by them and then sent to the commission.
“A few weeks after the feasibility study is completed, we should have a pretty good idea what will be needed to accomplish the renovation,” Postma said.
Another point of consideration for the feasibility study is to look into a future large-scale renovation of the UMC food services area.
“(Our long term goals are) to one day conduct a major renovation of the UMC’s food services,” Blyth said. “However, we understand that type of project is still years away.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Julie Ryan at ryanja@thecampuspress.com
