WHITNEY DINING TO REMAIN OPEN FOR WEEKENDS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR

Greetings:

The University of Connecticut’s Division of Student Affairs has been exploring ways to cut our operating costs without jeopardizing our ability to support the university’s core academic mission. The university is facing a significant reduction in our state appropriation, millions of dollars that cannot be replaced and therefore must result in reducing our operating costs instead. Along with all of the other functional areas within Student Affairs, the Department of Dining Services is making the necessary alterations in services with the desire not to cause widespread hardship to the UConn community. However, some hard choices have to be made.

Several days ago, Rachel Smith, President of the Residence Halls Association, Tom Haggerty, President of the Undergraduate Student Government and two East Campus Community Assistants, Dominick Mesce and Heather Swick, met with myself, John Saddlemire, Vice President for Student Affairs and David Clokey, Assistant Vice President for Student affairs, to discuss alternatives to the Dining Service’s proposal to close Whitney Dining during weekend hours beginning in the Fall 2009 semester. Student representatives communicated the unique culture of East and their concern of the impact on their community. Student Concern was raised that residents had already preselected housing prior to the decision to change weekend hours, leading to speculation that some may have made different housing choices had this information been available at the time of selection.

As a result of this gathering, I met with members of my department leadership to identify alternative solutions to closing Whitney on the weekends this fall. We were able to identify some cost savings that will be realized through the State’s proposed retirement plan, but this is only a temporary alternative. The University is facing very challenging financial times ahead in the 2010-2011 academic year. The Division of Student Affairs and the Department of Dining Services is committed to working closely with student leadership during the fall of 2009 to determine strategies to address effectively our fiscal obstacles. I want to thank the student leaders mentioned previously for their positive, open minded approach to our conversations and look forward to more in the future.

Yours respectfully,

C. Dennis Pierce
Director of Dining Services
University of Connecticut