Media Advisory

TO                          Business and Education Reporters

FROM                     UAF Administrative Services

SUBJECT                On-campus Dining Contract Goes to Marriott

DATE & TIME          Thursday, April 6, 2000

A committee of faculty, staff and students meeting for over a year to identify ways to expand campus café and dining options has selected a new food service contractor for the UAF campus. A notice of intent to award the bid to Sodexho Marriott/NANA was released today, April 6, 2000. The committee unanimously selected Sodexho Marriott to provide all aspects of current food service delivery, including retail sales and catering, to the Fairbanks campus.

About 1,200 full-time students and faculty live on the Fairbanks campus, which functions as a small city with a post office, fire and police station, bookstore and utility plant. The daily commuting population at UAF includes about 4,000 students. About 2,000 faculty and staff work at UAF campus to serve a total of 8,250 students in Fairbanks and at its branch campuses in Nome, Bethel, Kotzebue and Dillingham.

UAF Food Services Project Manager Dan Flodin has worked with the RFP evaluation committee as well as the Food Service Advisory Board to oversee scoping, analysis, planning and design of an expanded food service program. He said Sodexho Marriott operations at other colleges and universities are outstanding. He said more than 850 colleges and universities, along with 355 school districts nationwide, contract with Sodexho Marriott for food services. The current contract with Aramark ended during the summer of 1999, but was extended during the request for proposal process. Aramark and Chartwell/Statewide Services also bid on the contract.

It is expected that Sodexho Marriott will begin July 1. The $30 million Sodexho Marriott contract is for five years with two extension options of two years each.

-30-

CONTACT: Dan Flodin, UAF Food Services Project Manager, (907) 474-5145.

DPD/4-6-00/00-067ma