Chartwells director to reschedule meeting with Student Senate

Photo description: Elise Ullestad (front) and Bailey Mooney (back) attend Student Senate meeting
Photo credit: Kayla Korb
Nora Betts
Sower Staff

A Student Senate open forum with Patrick O’Brien, Chartwells’ Director of Dining Services, was canceled shortly before Tuesday’s meeting, but O’Brien said he hopes to reschedule before the end of the semester.

The Senate has tried to host an open forum with Chartwells since the fall, reaching out to directors Bob Agee and O’Brien to discuss a possible reinstatement of the Dog House swipe box program, which was discontinued two years ago partly due to budgeting concerns. The swipe box program offered a six-item menu for purchase at the Dog House Grill with a meal swipe rather than Bulldog Bucks.

O’Brien said he canceled Tuesday’s open forum because he thought that the topic of the forum was meal plan changes, something he needed to discuss first with his District Manager and Concordia administration.

“I want to make sure I have the right information to give to students before they ask questions,” said O’Brien, who replaced Agee after Agee’s passing and has been at Concordia for three weeks.

O’Brien said he now recognizes that other topics are up for discussion, including the swipe box program and his trajectory for the dining services. He said he hopes to reschedule an open forum with the Senate before the end of the semester.

“I do have a lot of ideas and things that we will implement that I would love to share [with] the students,” he said. “I would also love to know more about what the students would like to see as well.”