Students are used to griping about the food on campus, but few students jumped at the chance Thursday to get paid for their complaints.

Two representatives from the current dining services providers, Sodexho/NANA Management Services, came to UAF to conduct focus groups regarding the UAF community's opinion of campus dining.

Three sessions were scheduled, but less than a dozen students and faculty members showed up to voice their opinions.

NANA is one of three companies bidding for the UA dining services contract, which will put them in charge of not just food at UAF but also UAA and UAS, said NANA director of operations Derrell Webb.

"One thing we take pride in is our willingness to reach out to our customers and hear what they have to say in a variety of ways, such as with focus groups like this," said representative Steve Musser. "Sometimes they are well attended, and sometimes, well, they're like this."

Coming from San Francisco, the NANA officials were at the mercy of whomever organized the event to ensure that it was well-publicized, Musser said.

A lack of publicity may have been why few students showed up, he said, a hypothesis supported by the seven phone calls it took to locate the time and location of the meeting. Those who did attend received a $10 gift card to Fred Meyer for their time answering the questions, Musser said.

Instead of the focus group discussions that had been planned originally, participants were asked to answer an oral survey while Musser and his colleague wrote down their answers and adapted the questions to them.

"The survey was kind of long. I think they should have shortened it to just a couple questions, but it's good that they're asking students what they think," said Jennifer Chambers, 18, one of the two UAF students who showed up to the first focus group session. "It's too bad they're only asking when their contract is about to run out."

The other bidders, Chartwells Dining Service and Aramark, the former dining services provider at UAF and current one for UAA, were on campus to tour the facilities and prepare for their bids, said Chartwells' regional vice-president Dan Twohy.

Chartwells and NANA both declined to discuss their bids in-depth, but were willing to provide information about their companies.

Aramark's representatives did not respond to requests for an interview.

"What I can say is that there will be changes, physical changes, to the facilities that are long overdue," Musser said.

"As you begin a new, longer contract, there will continue to be menu changes, and if NANA is the successful bidder, NANA will to listen to students and respond," said Musser.

To that aim, NANA has set up an additional survey in the Lola Tilly Commons to elicit customer's responses about the food.

NANA Management Services is an entity co-owned by the NANA Regional Corporation and Sodexho, with the controlling interest held by NANA Regional Corporation.

Other NANA operations include the redevelopment of Baghdad, and various engineering firms, said district manager Jim Brennan.

Chartwells, a company based in New Mexico, provides dining services to educational institutions across the United States, including 230 colleges and universities, said Twohy.

Like NANA, Chartwells' boasts their willingness to listen to clients, and also their ability to cater each institution's food service to the institution's specific needs, Twohy said.

Aramark also seeks public input, though it hasn't made for the best publicity. At UAA, the student newspaper, The Northern Light, has criticized Aramark for not revealing the findings of two customer satisfaction surveys.

When students critique Aramark, UAA should know so that they can hold Aramark accountable, The Northern Light said in a Nov. 28 editorial.

Some in the industry have taken notice of the spat.

"Vending operators have been surveying customers from the very beginning in order to determine how good a job they are doing and to better understand what customers want," wrote Elliot Maras of Automatic Merchandiser Online, a vending trade publication. "However, as this situation in Alaska shows, operators must know what they are doing. By soliciting customer input, an operator creates expectations."

In addition, the editorial took a stance against Aramark having an exclusive contract, saying that it was in the student's best interests to have more options. That is an opinion UAA, and the rest of the UA system, will soon hear.

"It's too early in the process for us to tell what the changes will be," Twohy said. "Bids are due Jan. 26. Before then we'll be going to all three campuses, talking to students and conducting focus groups."