Outsourcing Gets a Look

The struggling economy has businesses and colleges nationwide considering ways to cut costs and boost the bottom line. But at Saint Anselm, the effort is not only focused on short-term fixes, but is part of a larger effort to consider the college's long-term stability. With efforts to evaluate and possibly reform the curriculum, as well as a new strategic planning process underway, college administrators charged several ad hoc teams with investigating eight areas of efficiency.

Among the committees are two investigating the practices of dining services and custodial services, the executive vice president, Suzanne K. Mellon, Ph.D., R.N., told the Crier.

The Dining Services Outsourcing Committee, charged with recommending cost-saving measures affecting Davison Hall, the Coffee Shop, and the Common Ground Café, has hosted three external vendors for campus visits. The companies are now preparing proposals for the committee's review, due this week, according to committee chair and dean of students Alicia Finn, Ph.D.

"We are waiting to receive the proposals" from vendors, Finn said. The committee will also review a fourth proposal from the college's dining services department, she said.

Proposals will be evaluated by the committee, and possibly by the college's vice presidents, for strengths and weaknesses. But "most of all, they have to fit Saint Anselm," Finn said. The Dining Services Outsourcing Committee will prepare recommendations for the college's upper administration, which may choose to bring proposals before the board of trustees or enter negotiations with outside companies.

All aspects of dining operations were placed on the table, Finn said, including the operational culture, quality of food, finances, and staffing. The committee is considering proposals that deal with student food service, the college's catering needs, and the increasing importance of meal options to go.

"We are coming from the notion of good stewardship," Finn said. The committee has visited other colleges that outsource dining services; members are also placing calls to colleges that have moved dining operations back in-house.

Members of the Student Government Association, S.G.A., senate voiced concern at Sunday's meeting that the student body is unaware of the outsourcing investigation; if aware, senators said, the student body would be impassioned.

The jobs of dining services staff members could be on the line in an outsourcing deal, S.G.A. president Scott Campbell said.

"These are people who we work with on a daily basis who I would not want to see loose their jobs and health insurance," Campbell told the senate. "I would suggest that over the next week or so everyone here do their best to become an amateur expert on outsourcing."

The senate considered several options, including a formal letter or petition aimed at the administration, or an information campaign to the student body.

"I think the first thing we need to do is to get people to know about this," Hillary Goodie '10, the Student Government Association secretary of fundraising, said. "If more people knew you would get more reaction, more people saying something, and something could be done."

Finn is working double duty as chair of the outsourcing committee and advisor to S.G.A., and says students with input concerns should contact student government representatives. She acknowledges that outsourcing generates have been considered in the committee's research process.

"I encourage people not to be too speculative," she said.

A separate committee, chaired by Adam Albina, the chief information officer, is looking into custodial services. Printing and greening are the charge of another committee, led by the librarian, Joseph W. Constance, Jr., Ph.D., and information technology customer service manager Jacques Plante.