Auxiliary Services

By The Auxiliary Services Team

Say hello to Auxiliaries and You, a new blog dedicated to providing information, facts and insight into all things Auxiliary Services here at the University of Houston.

Of course, our first order of business needs to be to describe the department’s mission, since our name – Auxiliary Services – doesn’t really help explain what we actually do.

Here at the University of Houston, Auxiliary Services oversees Dining Services, the Bookstore, Vending Services and various retail lease partners.

Each of these provide goods and services that are essential for UH’s success – both in the academic and administrative arenas. All are provided by outside private companies contracted with UH to deliver a specific service. For dining, that contract currently is with Aramark. For the bookstore, it is Barnes & Noble. The vending contract is with Canteen. The pouring contract is with Coca-Cola. And the University Copy Center is an example of a retail lease partner operating on the UH campus. Each has their own challenges on a growing campus that has seen its student enrollment grow tremendously in recent years, from 37,000 in the fall of 2009 to nearly 44,000 this past fall.

At colleges and universities across the country, however, the mix of auxiliary services varies. To help facilitate the distinction here at UH, we have transitioned to a simple model that differentiates between in-house auxiliary services and contracted auxiliary services.

While the Auxiliary Services Department is focused on managing the contracted partners, the University Services Department consists of the following areas: parking and transportation services, sustainability services, and such campus services as printing and postal services and campus card services (Cougar Card). These all are auxiliary services that are managed and provided by university personnel.

Both the Auxiliary Services and University Services areas are self-sustaining and do not receive state funding.

Our leadership structure in Auxiliary Services has changed recently and includes numerous new faces. Our executive director, Neil Hart, came on board in February. Three program director positions were created and report directly to him. John Price and Rosie Ashley fill two of those roles. The third is in the process of being filled. The program directors work closely with the contracted entities, seeing that we are meeting our mission.

The Auxiliaries Services offices are housed with the Cougar Card office on the ground floor of the Welcome Center Parking Garage in Suite 151. Our website is www.uh.edu/auxiliaryservices. Our email address is auxiliaryservices@uh.edu. Our main telephone number is 832-842-9053. We have an active social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

In the coming weeks and months, we look forward to providing you a transparent, down-to-earth look at how we operate. We feel that is important. We also want to have an open dialog with the UH community about our services and how we are doing. Feel free to reach out to us with concerns or questions. One way you can do that is through the comments section we have added to the bottom of our blog posts. If you leave a question or concern on our blog, we will make sure to answer it quickly and honestly.

We hope you find this blog useful and informative. If you do, make sure to spread the word about us.