Waterleaf Q/A

Napolitano: [asks about potentially merging options 2 and 3 and couldn’t the students cater instead of Sodexo, how would the contract with Sodexo be affected]

Stewart: as long as it’s associated with student experience, I would encourage and look for those opportunities.

Tim Myers (coordinator for the culinary program): outside events would still have to meet the course objectives for the students. With 16 weeks in the semester, we have to plan ahead and it’s hard to plan for last minute. When the kitchen is not operating, there would be safety / security issue.

Roark: was there student input?

Stewart: not over the last 10 days.

Myers: students gain the experience as part of their class. Students do wish they had more time. Currently, they feel a little cheated.

McGuire: this has been an excellent presentation. Would there be expenses?

Stewart: there might be but it’s hard to tell before development of new curriculum. We might have modest capital expenses.

McGuire: how often would Waterleaf be open?

Stewart: this would depend on the curriculum. After curricular needs are met would we look at what else we could do. If there are some days that are dark and there are opportunities for students, we’d look at that.

McGuire: about shifting the Monday / Tuesday nights, would there be additional revenue?

Myers: we would have to be careful whether our students are prepared for that.

McGuire: 18 months ago, the culinary program was a losing program.

Stewart: if this drives down the cost of the program, great, but it’s about the students first.

Mazzocchi: thank you for this very comprehensive presentation. What is a typical class size?

Stewart: Bruce was talking about classrooms across campus. Our concern is more about the lab space. As Bruce indicated, added 3 classrooms does not do much for us.

Mazzocchi: having additional regular classrooms is not a +.

Stewart: no.

Mazzocchi: would there be a demand in the community for these classrooms?

Stewart: We rely on the community to affirm that what we offer is what they need.

Myers: the program is accredited. Students can take the certification test to become cooks.

Mazzocchi: would there be an expansion in terms of certification?

Myers: yes. Hospitality students can also take certification tests.

Mazzocchi: when it comes to academics, if this were converted, would the current employees still be needed?

Stewart: I don’t think we can answer that yet. I don’t know that we can be 100% students. We still might need a skeletal staff to sustain the restaurant through 12 months of the year.

Mazzocchi: Would we still need an executive chef with a 6-figure salary?

Myers: I’m confident we can run it with FT and PT faculty.

Mazzocchi: could farm-to-table be tied to bringing back the farm to campus?

Myers: yes, we’d be interested in that.