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Does your college food service company hurt the local economy?

Submitted by Hannah Caruso on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 15:48
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That is a key part of the class-action lawsuit against campus food service companies in Alabama. At UA every student must pay a $300 fee each semester for Dining Dollars. And it doesn’t matter whether they live on campus.  (Kind of like the University of Louisville).
$300. Not an outrageous sum, to the outside observer.
But the students suing the universities estimate that in the last year alone undergrads paid more than $14 million total in Dining Dollars. Some of that money could have helped local merchants survive. 
When this program began in 1996, it was viewed by many in the community as a “threat to local business” as stated in an article in the Tuscaloosa News. In fact, the “chamber of commerce and Tuscaloosa City Council came out against Dining Dollars,” fearing that it would draw business away from local restaurants.
As a result UA agreed to open Dining Dollars to three off-campus businesses. However, the restaurants have to give 21% of revenue to the campus food service company. Some restaurants say they can’t afford that percentage. (Here’s the contract between the University and the company).
Does your school’s food service company draw income away from local businesses? How do you think this affects the local economy?
 
Photo by Southernpixel. 

Contesting Campus Monopolies in Alabama

Submitted by Ian Mikusko on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 13:18
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One of the issues that regularly raises the ire of university students—whatever their political stripe—is when a company has a monopoly on campus food service operations.

The indignation can be moral: “I shouldn’t have to support a company whose business practices conflict with my values.”
Or ideological: “I support the free market economy.”
Or practical: “I want different food options.” 
Regardless of the underlying reason, this practice is one that strikes many college students as unfair.
At three universities in Alabama, students are using the legal process to do something about monopolies on college campuses:
Students say in a class action [lawsuit] that the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa has given Aramark Educational Services "unfettered dominion and control over on-campus dining" by awarding it a monopoly on dining services, which "robs the students of the benefits of free choice in the marketplace." Students filed similar class actions against UA Birmingham and Sodexo, and Auburn University and Compass Group USA dba Chartwells.
Interesting that every one of the “Big 3”—Sodexo, Compass and Aramark—are included in the suit. 
I’ll be interested to see where this case goes. If successful, this is an interesting model for students taking action to balance power on their campus—which usually tilts in the direction of administrators and companies and away from students. 

Photo by David Smith via Flickr

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