TOWN HALL ANNOUNCES RESIDENTIAL AND DINING VISION

Big plans are in store for Residential Life and Housing and UH Dining Services for 2011-12. Both departments presented its vision to improve services for students, faculty and staff at the Town Hall meetings on Jan. 26 and 27.

At each meeting, RLH and Dining Services gave a presentation on projects to expect for the upcoming year followed by a Q&A session where attendants were invited to ask questions following each of the presentations.

�Shared governance is an important part of any university and town halls are a great way to be inclusive and obtain feedback about our services,� said Emily Messa, Assistant Vice President for University Services. �In fact, one of the students who is new to UH told me last night, �Wow, this was great. How often do you have these meetings because I want to come back!��

First up was Residential Life and Housing. After the announcement that University of Houston is the newest Tier One university in Texas, RLH has big plans to encourage more students to take advantage of the tier-one living and learning environment by increasing the percentage of students living on campus to 25 percent. To encourage these numbers, Moody Towers and the Quadrangle will undergo renovations throughout the summer.

In both the Moody Towers and the Quads, students will love to enter their rooms and find a new micro fridge, which will be more efficient and energy-friendly in both facilities. It also planned to enhance wireless networks in both facilities.

Moody Towers will get an upgrade with renovations to the rooms and lounges as well as repairs and improvements to the elevators. In the rooms, students returning in the fall will find new movable furniture, paint, flooring and window treatments in the rooms and new furniture and paint in the lounges.

In the Quadrangle, the already movable furniture will be refinished and rooms will get a new coat of paint, flooring and window treatments. New furniture, flooring and paint will improve the aesthetics in the lounges as well. The OB Hall elevator will also be renovated.

Once housing outlined their plans, next up was Dining Services. It has been a successful and busy year for Dining Services with the addition of the Fresh Food Company at Moody Towers, increasing from an average of 1,400 meals a day sold last year up to 3,800 meals a day this year. But it didn�t stop there. Dining Services then moved to improve customer service by integrating the Smoothie King and C-store at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center as well as bring Suchic Sushi to the UC, renovate Pizza Hut and Burger Studio and put up We Heard You comment boards in Moody Towers and OB dining halls. Next on the agenda is a new cafeteria for Oberholtzer Hall in 2012. Also, once the Robertson Stadium Parking Garage is built, the west side of campus can look forward to new retail concepts providing more food options for students, faculty and staff.

RLH and Dining Services are both university auxiliary services, meaning they do not receive state funds to keep their services running. Both departments have a solid team of administrators to brainstorm and develop financial plans in order to continually service students, faculty and staff on a daily basis as well as bring them improved services.

For RLH, residential students will see a range of increases between zero and six percent, with the higher end of the percentage found in rates for the renovated facilities, Moody Towers and the Quadrangle. Both facilities currently have the lowest capacity percentage of all on-campus facilities with hopes that the renovations will make the facilities more appealing to UH students, allowing UH to reach its goal of 25 percent residency.

For Dining Services, administrators must develop a financial plan every year based on projected food prices as well as maintenance and facility costs that are anticipated in the upcoming year. In order to ensure a consistently high-level of service and meet the requests and demands of students, faculty and staff, meal plan prices and door prices will see a percentage increase ranging from zero to eight percent in the 2011-12 academic year.

Several students attended the Town Hall to hear about the Residential Housing and Dining plans and were invited to take part in discussions for each as part of their effort to maintain transparency and encourage shared governance.

�I feel like the Town Hall was a huge success!� said Michael Harding, a UH student and chairman on the Food Service Advisory Committee (FSAC). �I appreciate all the students who came to the meeting, but most of all, I appreciate their participation in the discussions. This year we are hoping to get more student involvement in the decision making process so that students can feel a sense of ownership and empowerment by being involved with the FSAC. Personally, I am proud of the committee for ironing out all of the kinks that came with our new dining establishment and am excited for our upcoming dining facility that will hopefully result in the same success in service and quality meals that UH is becoming known for.�

Lucia Ayala, a senior at UH and member of the Student Government Association who attended the Town Hall, showed understanding for the price changes presented and expressed excitement about the future plans to improve services.

�It�s on the right track. Prices are going up and we have to keep up with the economy,� Ayala said. �The fact that they are renovating is an excellent idea. I think it is a great thing to do.�

For more information on Residential Life and Housing, visit www.uh.edu/housing. For more information on UH Dining Services, visit www.uh.edu/dining.