By Lauren del Valle and Ehlayna Napolitano NEWS EDITORS
Hofstra’s campus continues to see changes in the wake of health concerns raised by students last semester.
Last month, Hofstra’s Dining Services announced through an email to students on Jan. 14 that Compass Group, the parent corporation of Lackmann Culinary Services, had taken over dining operations in all facilities on campus. The change was made on Jan. 1.
“The University felt it was time for a change. Lackmann had been here a while and Compass has much larger resources,” Ed Taraskewich, the new resident district manager said.
Joseph Barkwill, the vice president of facilities and operations at Hofstra, said the need for a change had taken shape over the summer and continued into last semester. The need for more management staff and other changes that Hofstra and Barkwill were requesting were slow-coming.
“This past semester, talking to students, listening to what they were saying, they were actually repeating a lot of what we were telling Lackmann,” Barkwill said. These student concerns reaffirmed the potential need for a change that Barkwill had been considering.
Barkwill said his decision to change the company operating dining services was essentially made before Thanksgiving, although the shift did not come until after the semester ended in December.
Bon Appetit and Chartwells – the two sub-companies under Compass Group that have taken Lackmann’s place on campus – were Barkwill’s choices because of their sizes and their offerings. The former, in particular, offered organic options that Barkwill wanted to ensure for students.
Compass Group is similarly trying to address student concerns. Pricing, food value, relationships and dialogue with the student body are among their priorities in making changes to dining services here.
“We spent the last four or five weeks trying to make some improvements… with the understanding that this semester is really going to be a work in progress,” Taraskewich said.
Barkwill echoed this and said that the process of making changes on campus has only just begun and will likely take around a year to be fully completed.
Compass Group has begun more training sessions with staff, which cover topics like sanitation, cleanliness and cleaning chemicals. They also have more management on-site, which had been a major point of concern for Hofstra under Lackmann.
Compass is working to address the concerns raised by students at the end of last semester, including pricing and, more specifically, the pricing at Dutch Treats, Compass officials said. This has resulted in some changes to which types of foods are sold and how. However, they also remain hopeful for an open dialogue with students that will allow changes to be made if concerns or complaints should arise.
Students seemingly remain optimistic about the changes, although some expressed frustration during the transitional period.
Avery Grimes, a junior IT major, described satisfaction with the changes, in spite of the seeming disorganization.
“It can get a little chaotic and hectic but you just have to get used to it,” he said. “I think it’s an upgrade.”
Similarly, Loulou Katz, a junior classics major, said she felt the changes being made had resulted in some confusion.
“I think it’s going to take some getting used to… but I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement now… I’m pretty optimistic about this,” she said.
As for the food, Katz said she felt that although the changes were not necessarily hugely different, the new options she had tried were good. Compass representatives also expressed optimism for the coming semester and the changes that are underway.
“We’re going to make mistakes, I’m not going to tell you we’re perfect… but we’re not going to make repeat violations,” Taraskewich said.
