Wednesday March 6, 2013 year: 133 No. 34
the student voice of
The Ohio State University
www.thelantern.com
thelantern OSU replaces Sodexo as food provider
sports
jackie storer and Kristen mitchell Managing editor of design and Campus editor storer.29@osu.edu and mitchell.935@osu.edu
Kicking off
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The OSU football team started spring practice Tuesday at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
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Ohio State announced a new partner for concessions at university athletic venues that officials expect to be more lucrative than the deal it will replace. OSU announced Tuesday that Levy Restaurants will enter a seven-year contract for all of the university’s athletic venues, including the Schottenstein Center, a change from its 15-year agreement with Sodexo Inc., a company that has been accused of violating workers rights. Xen Riggs, OSU’s associate vice president for business advancement, said in a Tuesday email the way the contract is structured, the vendor doesn’t buy the contract, and that it is mostly based on commissions. The percentage can vary depending on the facility, type of event, premium sales and catering. OSU gets 42 percent commission from Levy based on gross sales less the sales tax, Riggs said. The contract with the Chicago-based Levy Restaurants details $8 million to be reinvested into the university infrastructure, however Riggs said the specific details of where, when and how that will be invested has yet to be determined. The university press release said the contract
includes a $2 million allocation toward improvements of the Schottenstein Center’s infrastructure and $6 million for food service enhancements for all facilities, which includes rebranding, new signs and equipment upgrades. “Through this new, seven-year agreement with Levy, Ohio State has an opportunity to work with a recognized leader in premium sports and entertainment dining to take our overall experience to the next level,” said Riggs in a press release sent out on Tuesday. Sodexo spokesman Greg Yost said in a Tuesday email the new deal came as a disappointment. “Sodexo is proud of the services we provided to The Ohio State University ... especially our leadership on Zero Waste at Ohio Stadium, and we are disappointed the university decided to go in a different direction with its food and beverage program for the Jerome Schottenstein Center and Ohio State University Athletic Venues,” Yost said. Some OSU students have protested OSU’s affiliation with Sodexo in the past because of alleged workers’ rights abuses by the company, and its contract is set to expire on June 30. Sodexo welcomes the opportunity to serve OSU and its fans in the future, Yost said. Riggs also stated in the press release the new commission rate with Levy Restaurants is expected
OSU football starts with spring practice OSU coach Urban Meyer yells out instructions during the Buckeyes’ first spring practice at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center March 5.
to be 43 percent, compared to the current rate of 32 percent with Sodexo. OSU’s current concession agreement with Sodexo returned $3.5 million in commission after generating $11.4 million in gross sales for the 2012 fiscal year. With this new contract, the university expects to see about $1 million more. “The university is committed to keeping food and beverage prices affordable and any increases would be determined by changes in market conditions, just as they have in the past, and no increases will occur as a direct result of our new vendor or contract terms,” Riggs said. However, some students said they would not be affected by the change. “I never bought food at the athletic venues before,” said Matthew Berno, a first-year in pre-mechanical engineering. Berno also said he had never heard of the alleged workers’ rights violations. The new contract will go into effect July 1 and will provide concessions to all major sports venues on campus, including Ohio Stadium, Bill Davis Stadium, French Fieldhouse, McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and Jack Nicklaus Museum. Ryan Cooper contributed to this article
Lack of female faculty at OSU worries some alexis preskar Lantern reporter preskar.1@osu.edu
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Jon Stewart’s new gig
Jon Stewart is taking a 12-week hiatus from ‘The Daily Show’ to direct the non-comedic drama ‘Rosewater.’
campus
2 students win peace award weather
2A Hole in parking garage closes 100 spots andrew holleran / Photo editor
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sally xia Lantern reporter xia.82@osu.edu
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The traditionally male-dominated fields of math and science appear to be staying that way at Ohio State. OSU is last in the Big Ten in percentage of women faculty. These numbers are disappointing to some, but others say there’s more to the data. Richard Petty, chair of the OSU Department of Psychology, said low numbers of women in these fields can be discouraging to students. “In higher education, I think it’s really important for students to see people like themselves, because in college this is where you’re preparing for your career,” he said. “If there are no female engineers, classmates or professors that you see, that sort of sends a very implicit message to you that maybe this isn’t where you’re supposed to be.” Minorities can also fall into a “stereotype threat,” which Petty said happens when someone is concerned that their group might not perform as well as others and they feel they are representing this group. “So if you’re the only woman in a math class, all of the sudden you start to think, ‘Oh I’m representing all of the women here so I better really do well or people will think women are not very good,’” he said. “And then you get very
anxious and it consumes your thoughts and you don’t do very well.” He said this threat can be combatted with something as simple as a professor assuring the class that historically men and women do equally well, or if the individual recognizes the threat and realizes it is inaccurate. Allie Lawson, a fourth-year in chemistry, said she has noticed the low number of female professors and students in her classes. “I remember quite a few times in the chemistry department where I’ve felt blatantly out of place as a woman,” she said. She added that her male peers sometimes make rude comments to her, and one male student told her he was surprised to see a girl in a science building. It is stereotypes and biases like these that need to be addressed, Petty said. Explicit bias and open discrimination is becoming rarer because it is socially unacceptable. But implicit bias, which is often subconscious, is still prevalent. Implicit bias is when people think they aren’t biased, but in tests they are seen to value a man’s work more than a woman’s. Jill Bystydzienski, professor in and chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, said OSU’s 33 percent female faculty is on track with the national average of about one-third of college faculty being
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More than 100 parking spaces have been out of service in the South Cannon Garage since the appearance of a hole on the upper floors. The top two floors of the garage, located near the Wexner Medical Center, are closed due to a hole caused by concrete spalls, or concrete breaking into smaller pieces in the roof, said Sarah Blouch, the director of CampusParc, a private company that took over operations of Ohio State’s parking operations in September. “As soon as we discovered this, we shut down the parking and called in our engineers,” said Blouch in an email. “They have been out and are working with some companies to evaluate the best approach to fix the hole so we can use (those) levels again.” Blouch said the affected floors were closed on Feb. 22 after the hole was discovered. The garage is expected to be closed for a major restoration from July to April 2014, which is when the hole will be repaired if a safe and effective way to fix it is not identified before then. The two top floors will remain closed until the restoration project is underway if a way to repair it is not identified before July. Part of the restoration will be repairing concrete spalls and applying a
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Andrew holleran / Photo editor
The roof of the South Cannon Garage near OSU’s Wexner Medical Center is blocked off to cars Feb. 28 due to a hole in the concrete.
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