Thursday, October 9, 1997
Food services tightens organizational belt
FINANCE: Division plans to lure brand-name
vendors to Treehouse
By Frances Lee
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Marie Antoinette reportedly said, "Let them eat cake."
The students’ association (ASUCLA) might say something along the
lines of, "Let them eat cake, but let’s make sure they buy it on
campus and it tastes good."
With that aim in mind, the UCLA Restaurants – a division of the
association – is being reorganized.
The most notable of the new changes is the elimination of the
Food Services Director position. Kert Evans, who held the position,
left in late August.
"The driving force behind (the restructuring)," said ASUCLA
Executive Director Patricia Eastman, "was that with flat sales (in
food services) – we needed to reduce the infrastructure.
"That particular position was the one that made the most sense
(to eliminate)," she continued, since it was more of a managerial
position than a hands-on job.
Now, the three top managers who are directly responsible for the
day-to-day operations of the UCLA Restaurants report to Eastman
instead of a director.
"Between the three of us, we’ve absorbed most of what Kert was
doing," said Roy Champawat, project and financial coordinator for
UCLA Restaurants. "We’re rolling along with that, … we need to be
as lean an organization as we can be."
For now, Eastman has assumed the managerial responsibilities of
the food services director. There are currently no plans to
re-establish the position.
"I don’t mean to take anything away from Kert’s contribution,"
Eastman said, "but a removal of a (management) layer put less
distance between me and the division.
"We have a lot of talent and energy and knowledge, and that adds
up to a lot of potential," she added.
Food Services’ performance has long been a concern of the ASUCLA
board of directors, with a renewed interest in the problem since
March.
The division’s failure to meet budget expectations on top of
internal complaints, such as graduate board member Dave Kopplin
noting he had eaten the worst hamburger of his life on campus,
prompted the board to question Food Services’ strategy.
For a year, the board has known that Treehouse in Ackerman Union
"needed a cash infusion. We have no money to improve that
facility," said graduate board member James Friedman. "Pat’s idea
was that the best way to handle this was to look at the idea of
(bringing in) branded concepts (major restaurant chains)."
Earlier this summer, the board created an Ad Hoc Food Services
Committee to address the board’s concern over lagging sales and the
value of its service to the UCLA community. The results of a survey
conducted last spring added insight to what the board needed to
focus on.
"All the board members were disgruntled (with food) and felt we
needed to improve on that, particularly because of financial
hardship," said Committee Chair Friedman.
"(Food Services) doesn’t make money for the organization," he
continued, "but it’s something people experience every day."
To that effect, the board wanted to concentrate on improving the
division’s financial position and its service to its customers,
Friedman added.
Topping the list of what customers wanted was an improvement in
price and the value of the food on campus, according to the
survey.
Increasing the choice and variety of the food came in a close
second, while improving the quality of the food rounded out the top
three concerns.
Taking the results of the survey into account, both Eastman and
the committee have been working on strategies to give customers
more of what they want, as cheaply as possible.
Over the last few months, ASUCLA has launched several new
products, including fresh-made sushi at Northern Lights, a
Subway-style sandwich counter in Treehouse and quick, made-to-order
pasta at North Campus.
Plans are also underway to turn Treehouse into a "branded
concepts" food court, bringing in name-brand restaurants like Panda
Express, which is already in Ackerman Union.
"The association doesn’t have the capital to renovate
Treehouse," Eastman said, "and there are some food concepts that
branded operators can do better.
"The opportunity for positive image building is greater in food
services than any other area," she said.
Improvements to the Treehouse are scheduled to debut next fall.
The association is still negotiating with potential vendors.
Friedman noted that the real value to introducing branded
concepts was to "give students something that’s good and they seem
to like. It also frees up our energies to concentrate on (other
things).
"The bottom line is, we’re trying to make it more effective and
a better experience for everyone," Friedman added. "We’ve got this
little city here, and we should be able to have something for
everyone."