Turning around Dining Services in Baker University Center will mean trimming hours and possibly shutting down individual venues at the West 82 food court, OU's chief financial officer said.
We are running long hours without sales to support it
said Bill Decatur, vice president of Finance and Administration. There will have to be pullout.
Two years after it opened, Baker's Dining Services faces its second deficit of about $1 million. After its first six months of operations, from January 2007 to June 2007, it lost more than $1 million. This year, Baker's Dining Services forecasts another deficit just below $1 million.
Christine Sheets, assistant vice president for Auxiliary Services, said Dining Services did not have any guaranteed revenue and was not sure what to expect in Winter Quarter, the first time Dining Dollars were not in use.
We had to get through Winter Quarter to see where we could push change market and develop our concepts in West 82
she said.
To improve Baker's Dining Services ' which comprises The Front Room, Bobcat Essentials, Latitude 39, and West 82 ' OU is targeting the West 82 food court.
Although nothing has been finalized, reducing expenses at West 82 by limiting the hours of operation is unavoidable, Decatur said.
I don't see any way around that unless we decide as a university that we want to substantially subsidize this operation and I'm certainly not willing to advocate that
Decatur said.
West 82, which eliminated Sunday hours early Spring Quarter, is considering the same for Saturdays, said Dave Logan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1699.
Logan said the union is working to reduce the effect of potential cutbacks for West 82, which employs about 150 students and 15 union members.
There may end up being cuts
but right now we've scheduled a series of meetings to discuss the best way of dealing with this
Logan said. If there are cutbacks
obviously we're not going to be happy
but at this point we're talking about rearranging schedules.
Sheets and other Dining Services officials will present a plan to Decatur on how to proceed, which will include changes in prices and reductions in hours and staff.
The problem with Baker's Dining Services is easy to diagnose, Logan said.
We don't have the traffic that was projected and management
not necessarily food service
but of Baker Center is not living up to their expectations of bringing people in the building
