Fresno State students could see improvements to the available dining services on campus in the future.
Debbie Adishian-Astone, associate vice president for Fresno State’s Auxiliary Operations, and Claudia Scotty, Envision Strategies executive principal, spoke at the Associated Students, Inc. meetingWednesday afternoon regarding the recent retail dining services study conducted on campus.
Envision Strategies convened focus groups and collected 337 replies from Fresno State students and faculty as part of a survey about the available dining services on campus.
The research found, Scotty said, that 29.2 percent of respondents would prefer to have more food service outlets added to the central academic core zone, or close to the McLane Hall, Engineering East and Agriculture Science buildings. She said 24.1 percent of respondents also voted for more food services outlets in the residence hall zones.
The survey showed that Chik-fil-A, the Satellite Student Union snack bar and the Science II and Sid Craig Peters Building Planet Java coffee bars are underachieving financially with the number of customers they serve.
Scotty said students felt the University Student Union’s dining services also do not have the ability to cater to all of the students on campus during its peak hours.
Respondents would prefer, Scotty said, to have a better range of food available, such as authentic Mexican food, more fresh and local healthy foods, pizza and more coffee or food available on the east side of campus.
With this feedback and research, Adishian-Astone said they are looking to expand the available dining services across the campus, such as provide a larger variety, improve physical constraints in current dining services and add more food services across campus.
“We have not done a study like this that we asked Claudia to do in probably 20 years,” Adishian-Astone said. “It’s mostly been working with what the students want and working through what the new concepts needs to be.
“Given the amount of changes we need to make in the next three to five years, we want to make sure we have the data to support it and that we have involvement and participation from the student body as much as possible.”
USA Today readership program approved
The ASI senate approved President Moses Menchaca’s resolution to bring USA Today to Fresno State through its campus readership program.
Menchaca said the program will bring in 200 copies of the newspaper a day at 50 cents per copy.
Menchaca also said the length of the campus’ USA Today subscription will be from October to May 2014 and will cost a total of $9,900. He said ASI would be reimbursed $10,000 through donations from vice president of student affairs Paul Oliaro and interim provost and vice president of academic affairs Andrew Hoff.
Locations where USA Today will be available are to still be determined.
Menchaca also said the amount of student readership and usage of the USA Today subscription will decide whether ASI will continue its subscription after May 2014.
Postponed: resolution on the general disclosure of registered sex offenders present on Fresno State campus
The six-page resolution to disclose registered sex offenders present on Fresno State campus was amended and edited to four pages by Neil O’Brien, senator for the College of Health and Human Services.
The ASI senate votedWednesdayto table the resolution for their next meeting.
O’Brien’s resolution calls for a “general notification” letter or email to students that states they are enrolled in a course, living in on-campus housing or participating in a campus organization with a registered sex offender.
The sex offender’s identity would not be explicitly acknowledged in the notification, O’Brien said.
“To me, I would prefer full disclosure,” O’Brien said. “I have to come to an agreement with those that disagree with me, and I think that this is the middle ground for it.”
O’Brien said this “general notification” would also mention other alternatives to the course, living situation or other organizations for the student to enroll in.
Directions of how to obtain more information about the sex offenders from the campus police department would be available for students, O’Brien said.
“There is a misconception that Megan’s Law will tell you who these sex offenders are and what they do,” O’Brien said. “But it just shows where they live, it doesn’t tell you where they are going to school.”
O’Brien also said the resolution will notify parents with underage students and children enrolled at Fresno State, Fresno State’s University High School or daycare and preschool campus locations.
“I foresee myself having children someday and being a father,” O’Brien said. “The last thing that I want to know is that this place becomes a safe haven and a playground for sex offenders to roam knowing they have anonymity specifically because they say they want to gain an education.”
