Southeast Missouri State University has renewed its contract with Chartwells dining service, which includes a deal to add a Panda Express in the University Center, along with the expansion of the Subway and Chick-Fil-A options already on campus. Some internal renovations were also approved for planning as well as some meal plan policy changes.

"The venues we have are nice, but in reality we need to put some more money back into our facilities," Dr. Bruce Skinner, assistant director of student success and auxiliary services at Southeast, said.

Skinner said the university put a "request for proposal" together and that four firms, including Chartwells, came to a pre-bid meeting at the end of the fall semester. Chartwells was the only firm to make a bid after meetings ended in mid-January.

Skinner said there was a committee of 14 people who helped decide on the bid, including members of the Student Government Association, Residence Hall Association, faculty, staff and River Campus representatives, and that all members thought the Chartwells bid met or exceeded every aspect of the university's dining contract proposal.

"We required as part of the bid that you had to keep Chick-Fil-A, you had to keep Papa John's, you had to keep Subway and you had to keep Starbucks. That was regardless of who's bidding, you had to do that," Skinner said.

Chartwells went beyond keeping the name-brand food options on campus and offered to improve the Subway location by adding a second line to help with overflow and offered to expand the Chick-Fil-A option to include a wider variety of menu options. An added Panda Express was also a key component to the bid.

"Panda Express regularly gets brought up by students, particularly out of the St. Louis area," Skinner said. "So it wasn't as if they pulled it from nowhere, but that was something students were saying and something they were doing on other campuses. For example, they do Taco Bell on some other campuses, our students haven't asked for Taco Bell in nearly the numbers we have for Panda Express."

Skinner said there were two timelines Chartwells has for when these dining changes are supposed to be made. The first is a "by next August" timeline, and then a longer timeline for other facility improvements.

A Panda Express representative is expected to be on campus within the next two weeks to begin conceptualizing the new location and design. Skinner expects the design to be completed by August, as Panda Express is one of the main priorities of the dining improvements.

Skinner also said a representative from Subway will visit campus before August to effectively update the location in Scully Building to better suit a two-lane dining experience.

"Chartwells also has its own construction company, so they have people they can bring to campus that can actually do the work. ... They do more than just say, 'Well here's what you would need,' they actually plan to do the work in the buildings," Skinner said.

Skinner said most of the renovations in the UC and in Towers will be behind-the-scenes kitchen updates because those areas have not been updated in some time.

The University Center and Towers can only be renovated in opposing years, and Skinner said the university will decide with Chartwells which location will be renovated first, one being renovated in 2016, the other 2017.

Skinner said that in discussions with university President Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins, university officials decided that although student meal plans were adequate, students wanted more flexibility in the use of their meals.

The "meal to flex" program has gone away, but students are now able to pay an extra charge depending on their meal plan to use multiple meals at any given time creating the "preferred" option compared to the "classic." In both options if not all meals are used at the end of the week, the remaining meals will disappear.

"Students that want it can buy that flexibility, students that don't want it then aren't paying to subsidize the other students that want that flexibility," Skinner said.

Along with updated dining options, Chartwells proposed to keep this year's dining rates the same, and in the next two year's rate increases cannot go up more than 3.5 percent per year, no matter the change in the economy or food costs.

There will also be additional features added to the dining experience, such as incorporating a rice dish in every meal. Chartwells is also going to partner with hospitality management students to offer internships, with a focus on international students and military veterans because those groups of individuals have seen success in these programs on other campuses.

Skinner also mentioned that Chartwells proposed a food truck concept as well in their bid that would move around campus during peak dining times or for athletic events.

"I was pleased to see this because it showed me that they weren't just looking at what Southeast was used to, they were actually looking at 'OK, what would be different for the campus?'" Skinner said.

Skinner said the contract with Chartwells will benefit Southeast in the long run.

"This contract allows us to put $6 million back into the facilities and make that as part of our meal program over a decade," Skinner said. "... It's a way to accomplish facility improvements without taking out loans. ... Working with Chartwells, we're able to spread that cost over a decade and still update our facilities."