The future of Baker University’s dining services has been a hot topic of debate among faculty members over the past few months.

After two potential companies were eliminated, Sodexo Inc. is the only suitor remaining that could replace Baker’s current dining services.

“I think we’ll have to make a decision fairly quickly,” University President Pat Long said. “With Tanya (Sieber) leaving, that sort of exacerbates the decision-making because we’ll have to decide whether we’ll hire somebody internally or if we’re going to go with a contract.”

Sieber announced Sept. 11 that she will become the director of dining for the Kansas City Art Institute.

Long assured that Sieber was not let go by BU and is sad to see her go.

With Long hoping to make a decision by Oct. 1, members of Sodexo were invited to showcase their services and speak to students, faculty and staff Sept. 11-12.

On Sept. 11, Sodexo representatives spoke at the first student senate meeting of the year and answered any questions and concerns from students.

First, students who attended the meeting wanted to make sure current employees will stay employed and not see a drop in salary. The students also wanted to ensure the current cost of food would not increase. The quality of food offered by Sodexo compared to Baker’s current dining services was also a priority among students. Lastly, the students present at the meeting wanted to be assured that revenue being brought in from dining services will help the university grow.

“It’s a tough situation to be in right now,” Owen Lewis, executive vice president of student senate, said. “Some of the positives are really positive, but the things we are sacrificing might not outweigh the positive.”

Long stressed to the students at the meeting that no contract has been signed at this point. If there were to be a contract between Baker and Sodexo, it would be a 10-year contract.

Faculty and staff also had a question and answer session with Sodexo District Manager Ben Hartley Sept. 12 in the Alumni Center and were able to sample food cooked by the companies’ chefs.

“We have a national menu that is a wide variety of different things,” Michael Betlach, Friends University executive chef, said. “We go anywhere from Mexican on up to Italian foods and stuff like that. This year, we’re running on different programs and stuff featuring Southeast Asia, which is Indian, (Vietnamese) and Korean type foods.”

Along with bringing new eating options, Sodexo also plans to do renovations to the Allen Dining Hall to accompany its style of serving food.

Long believes the idea of a food court will give Allen Dining Hall a more modern appeal.

“What we’re thinking about now is a food court, so we would change from instead of a line to a food court,” Long said. “So that would give us a lot of options just like we see today and what they talk about is a standard line, maybe like the turkey line that you see, a vegetarian line and then some kind of international cuisine and then always burgers and grilled cheese and that kind of thing.”

Sodexo has also proposed to install an Einstein Bros. Bagel into what is now the Wildcat Café. Nothing from Sodexo is set because the company is looking for student feedback and their opinions on what their dining services should look like at Baker.

“What (Sodexo representatives) have been really clear with is that when they come in, they’ll sit and talk to students; they’ll have focus groups,” Long said.

Long said the soonest renovations would be made would be this summer, but different food options could start being served immediately.