Black Ink February 11,1991
Is Marriott Corporation Doing
The Job?
By Myron B. Pitts
Su^ff
Picture this: It is noon
time and your 11 o’clock
class has just let out.
Hoping to catch a quick
bite to eat, you decide to
drop by Lenoir Hall be
fore your 1 o’clock class.
You enter the two sets
of double doors and find
yourself caught in a mob
scene: masses of people
are rushing back andforth
through the turnstiles
guarding the area where
the food is served. As you
wade in among the hungry
throngs filling the entire
area from the entree sta
tion to the beverage foun
tains,you abandon any eti
quette you may have
learned about crowd
maneuvering; you fail to
say “excuse me” even
once, despite the numer
ous and inevitable colli
sions that occur between
yourself and your peers.
You fall in behind a line
of people waiting for the
lunch entree (or so you
think), but you cannot be
sure because it is com
bined with the grill line in
a confusing fashion. When
you finally get your
chicken breast, broccoli
with cheese sauce and rice,
you decide to make your
way over to the fountain
drinks. After being jostled,
pushed, bumped into, and
just generally tossed to and
fro, you reach the tap
drinks andpress your glass
against the lever for ice.
No ice. Resigning your
self to a less-than-coldsoft
drink, you push the Coke
tap. But before the extra
carbon has fizzed away,
someone, who obviously
lacks your patience, is
pressing you to move
along; the person’s eyes
seem to say, “Come on, I
have a 1:00 class too.”
Grudgingly, you pick
up your tray and join the
thick stream of life flow
ing to the cash registers,
your cup only three-quar
ters full. The wait in the
register line is consider
able. When the cashier at
last swipes your meal card
through the appropriate
slot in the machine and
issues her assembly line
“thank you,” you begin
the daunting task of find
ing a seat. All of the tables
you pass are either taken
or “reserved” by the prac
tical students who leave
their book bags on them
while they get their meal.
Just as you make up your
mind to dine with a single
lone stranger, who is sit
ting at a table with three
empty seats, a couple is
vacating a table in the
smoking section. Deftly
moving around tables and
over chairs in the narrow
walking space, you barely
beat out another person
with designs onyour table.
Sighing with relief, you
sit down and glance at your
watch. The time is 12:40
p.m. You realize that you
should have gotten your
food to go, but you are not
willing to brave the crowds
again to obtain a take-out
box. So you sit, eating food
that is tolerably warm and
reasonably good (al
though the broccoli is a bit
undercooked). With a tiny
sardonic grin onyour face,
you think, “Another day
in paradise. . . "
Paradise Lenoir is not. Neither is
Chase Hall. But Marriott Corp.,
which took control of Carolina
Dining Services five years ago,
could become the first food serv
ice contractor ever to succeed fi
nancially at the University. Ac
cording to Chris Derby, director of
campus dining services, Marriott
has consistently earned a profit in
recent years and will eventually
overcome the large initial invest
ment that has kept the operation in
the red.
The University has had a his
tory of failed dining service con
tractors, Derby said. “We’re the
first contractor that has really made
it work for the clients, customers
and students,” he said. “There’s
been a long history of contractors
about key areas of concern.
Dining hall space
Freshman Tamesha Robinson,
who dines regularly in Lenoir and
occasionally in Chase, said her
only outstanding gripe with the
dining service is related to lack of
space. Many of her friends have
also complained about the 30 or 40
minutes it takes to get lunch in
Lenoir, she said.
“There is not enough space in
eitherof the cafeterias,” Robinson
said. “It’s really difficult to come
in here and get lunch.”
Shilpa Shah, a junior and regu
lar diner, sees rush hour crowding
as something that cannot be helped.
“It’s obviously too crowded and
you can’t fmd a table,” she said.
Cover Story
on this campus who couldn ’ t make
it work.”
When Marriott’s contract ex
pires this year, they will defmitely
be in the bidding for a renewal,
Derby said. He has spotted repre
sentatives on campus from other
companies who might bid for the
contract, including ARA, who ran
the dining services before Marri
ott won the bid in 1986. “We like
serving the Chapel Hill campus,”
Derby said. “We still feel its a
contract worth bidding for.”
Much of Marriott’s marginal
success can be contributed to its
close monitoring of student opin
ion, Derby said. Every semester,
Carolina Dining Services distrib
utes surveys, and two weeks ago,
they sponsored group discussions
that allowed participants a chance
to air their opinions on campus
dining.
“The most important part is
understanding the customer,”
Derby said. “We can never get
enough input. I feel very strongly
that we run a good quality pro
gram on this campus.”
Do students share Derby’s
opinion of Marriott’s services?
Below are the responses of cam
pus diners who were questioned
“That’s probably unavoidable.”
Junior Viola Walker, a regular
Lenoir diner, said the new arrange
ment of the meal lines add to the
confusion during busy periods of
the day. Last year, the lines for the
lunch entree and the grill branched
off in different directions, but now
the two are parallel and often
converge. This leads to a buildup
of people who block the drink
machines. Walker said. “ You have
a lot of congestion in that area.'
Even Derby admitted Lenoir is
too small to handle its rush-hour
clientele. Some suggestions for
improvement now being consid
ered include:
•An indoor stairwell connect
ing Lenoir’s upstairs and down
stairs floors According to Derby,
this would encourage more people
to take advantage of downstairs
seating.
•More tables that seat two per
sons. Derby noted that often a
single person will occupy a four-
person table, leaving three empty
seats.
•Pedestal-style tables like those
in airports. These do not take up
much room but require the diner to
eat standing up.
Whatever the measures taken