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THE
Clarion Call CLARION UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1913
APRIL 25, 2013
VOL. 99 ED. 23
Chartwells’ pact: Validated meal cards stay Rachel Farkas STAFF WRITER
CLARION, Pa. - The university is in the process of finalizing a new contract with food service provider Chartwells. The new contract, which will run from 2013 – 2022, will maintain some aspects while bringing in new parts to fit students’ growing needs. One portion of the contract that will continue is the 50 validated meal cards that Chartwells provides, at no cost, to the university. David Love, university spokesman, said 41 of the cards go to students as part of scholarship support and the other nine cards go to “employees who are required to live on campus and/or to employees who administer food contractor performance evaluations.” Among those employees are President Karen Whitney, her partner Peggy Apple and Vice President for Student and University Affairs Harry Tripp.
Tripp said that Chartwells has traditionally given the university meal cards for employees who are required to live on campus or eat at the dining halls. However, during the university’s last capital campaign in 2000, Tripp said the university asked Chartwells for a scholarship gift, which is how it received the extra meal cards for students. Tripp said he uses his meal card for at least one breakfast, lunch and dinner a week because it is part of his job to monitor the facilities and interact with students. The meal card allows him to do this on a regular basis. President Whitney, who responded via email, said it is commonplace for presidents and their spouses or partners to receive meal cards and that she did not believe it showed any impropriety. Whitney also said she uses the meal card “very often” because she likes to know first-hand
“I also use my time in Eagle Commons or at other dining venues to talk with students, food service workers, faculty and staff firsthand. This is a very effective and economical way for me to talk with and get to know students...” -Karen Whitney, president about the students’ dining experience. “I also use my time in Eagle Commons or at other dining venues to talk with students, food service workers, faculty and staff firsthand,” she said. “This is a very effective and economical way for me to talk with and get to know students- to learn about their day- to hear firsthand about how it’s going in their classes - what their after graduation hopes may be etc.” Tripp said after speaking with students in the dining hall and through Chartwells’ “tabletop exercises,” a list was compiled of what students like and dislike about the program.
He said they tried to incorporate as many of the students’ concerns as they could into the new contract. One new feature will be the addition of a latenight eatery in the Gemmell Student Center. A Denny’s restaurant will be installed in the lower level of Gemmell sometime within the next academic year, Tripp said. The restaurant will be open from 7 a.m. – 2 a.m. to suit students’ late night dining needs. Tripp said students have also voiced concerns about the dining hall not being open late enough to work with their schedules. So the
dining hall will be open until 8 p.m. during the coming academic year. One aspect of the current contract that students have had difficulty understanding is the “missed meal component,” Tripp said. Each week, it is assumed that students will not use a certain amount of meals in their meal plan. However, as students well know, they do not receive a refund for meals that go unused. The money for all meals goes to Chartwells, some of which the university receives as a rebate. As part of the last contract, the university received 4.5 percent of Chartwells’ gross monthly sales. Love said 100 percent of this money goes toward operation and maintenance of the facilities. In response to students’ unease, Tripp said a new meal plan option has been created to give students more freedom and control over their meals. The new “unlimited” meal plan will allow stu-
dents to eat as many meals as they want in a day, whenever they want. For example, a student could skip breakfast and eat dinner twice if it suited them better. In the new contract, Chartwells will also add a food truck to its dining and catering services. The food truck will be used at athletic events and other universitysanctioned events. Students will be able to spend their flex dollars at the truck, which will have a variety of menus to choose from. Tripp said Slippery Rock has a food truck as part of its food services and it has been a great success. Chartwells has been in service with Clarion for almost 50 years, said Chad Thomas, university food service contract administrator. Thomas said once the final approval is complete with Chartwells, the contract will need final approval from PASSHE and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office.
Clarion University re-evaluates safety on campus Emily Miller Jen Schwartz CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
CLARION, Pa. - More than four months after the Newtown school shooting, questions regarding the safety of students and faculty have become a focus across the nation. These concerns hit home for Clarion University with the accidental shooting of a student earlier this year. With this in mind, CUP President Karen Whitney has started the process of updating the emergency operations plan. Former police chief Glen Reid was given a new position as emergency management director created by President Whitney to oversee the creation and adoption of policy changes. “The new position allowed the university to establish an Office of Emergency Management,” Whitney said. “The purpose of a greater emphasis on Emergency Management is to work to better plan, prepare and when necessary respond to emergency/crisis events.” In the beginning steps of the process, the university’s emergency evacuation plan needed to be addressed. “As we look at these plans, you need something more specific for
the university, and that’s what I’m in the process of doing now,” Reid said. Reid, who is on her third draft of the plan, is dividing emergency situations into three categories: natural, which includes flooding or some type of weather event; man-made or technological, some examples being hazardous spills, active shooters, or a technological/network failure; and utility failures, such as loss of power, steam, or water. In addition, Reid is assigning individuals to a critical incident team that will be responsible for making decisions regarding evacuation process and shelter sites. “It’s a huge project, and that’s why you have to start one at a time,” Reid said. “Basically, what this plan entails is how we would evacuate if we needed to – where we would go, how we would do that, how we would set things up so that we could safely move students, and how we would assess the damage and move on.” In addition to updating the current policies, Reid is also implementing training sessions for staff and faculty. Students will have the option to participate in separate sessions. The training will take place over the summer and continue into the fall semester possibly includ-
Tyler Lobdell / The Clarion Call
Glen Reid shares some of the changes planned for campus safety. ing discovery weekend. With the new policy comes the issue of funding questions. President Whitney said costs will be covered through the Education and General Funding appropriations by the state. These new policies are designed to increase safety for members of the campus community, but that does not say Clarion is at high risk for dangerous activity. “I personally feel safe
when I walk around the university and the community. I would say it’s more about ‘feeling’ than ‘thinking,’” said Whitney. “As a community we all need to work to create a feeling of safety for everyone. We do this at the university through having a well-qualified and engaging police force.”
The report is the result of a project undertaken by the spring 2013 Investigative Journalism class taught by Dr. Laurie Miller, assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Clarion University. It is published in agreement with the editorial board of The Clarion Call. Contributors to this report include the students in the class: Sarah Bertram,John Burba, Anthony Carter, Brittany Cihal, Tavis Costik, Michael Decker, Samuel Dixon, James Ferguson, Michael Friend, Shalynn Giovannitti, Emily Hardie , Kayla Hart, Jazzmonde James, Maurice James, Erika Keck, Michael Leopardo, Tyler Lobdell, Cody Martyna, Emily Miller, Cassia Minich, Zachary Newquist, Jacob Oberdorf, Kevin Reeves, Derek Rezek, Jennifer Schwartz, Chelsea Switzer, Brian Zalakar.
Other contributors are Cassia Minich, Samuel Dixon and Brian Zalakar.
For more stories, see page 3
THIS WEEK’S EDITION
Inside
INDEX
Yasser Ayad lectures on Islamic culture. FEATURES PAGE 5
The Band Perry highlights CampusFest. ENTERTAINMENT PAGE 9
Pittsburgh Marathon will be Boston strong. SPORTS PAGE 12
News Opinion Features Classifieds Puzzles & Comics Arts & Entertainment Sports Standings
WEATHER 2 4 5 7 7 8 10 11
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58 LOW
33 Full 7-Day Forecast
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