The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents will vote Tuesday on privatizing dining services with food vendor Chartwells. the move is part of the school's overall budget for the news fiscal year that begins July 1st, which is to be adopted by the board at the meeting.
The move has upset staff and students. Ian Robinson is President of the Huron Valley AFL-CIO. He says the money EMU hopes to save by contracting with Chartwells could be found by making the school a Division Two football program.
Robinson says,
“If the Board of Regents or the [EMU] administration wants to save money, and not make their students pay more for the food that they get, and not reduce the wages that their employees make... all of this could be done by giving up the fantasy of a Division One football team that students don’t go to anyway.”
Critics of the plan also say student jobs and wages are likely to be cut by Chartwells. Robinson says details of the contract have not been completed or made public.
“Whether it's completed or not we’re told the administration plans to present it to the Board of Regents of EMU to vote on, so we think the haste with which this has been done is both unseemly and unnecessary.”
The protest begins at 11 AM Tuesday outside Welch Hallon EMU's campus.
The Board of Regents will meet at 1 PM in room 201 at Welch Hall.
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— Amanda LeClaire is a reporter and anchor for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact her at 734.487.3363 or email her aleclair@emich.edu
