Colleges and universities have their own human resource, marketing and other departments. Yet many ...

Some might argue that setting up separate specialists for functions like this is just redundant empire building and that such positions could be eliminated to reduce dining department costs, But most campus dining directors would point out that providing foodservice (and hiring the right kinds of people to do this well) is a specialty area in which the larger institution has little or no expertise. This gets to the heart of the idea that campus dining and other forms of onsite foodservice are not part of the core business of the larger organization, and need to operate as separate businesses in their own right.

Further, many functions in foodservice are quite specialized. Marketing, IT and other managers need to be intimately versed in the way operations are conducted within the department in order to successfully apply their formal skills to the challenges the department faces. For example, accounting must be able to track cash purchases, meal plan purchases, meal plan equivalency credit purchases and so on in ways that allow the department to analyze and manage overall dining revenues and costs successfully. They often have to develop specialized techniques for tracking and reporting these kinds of transactions and how they interact with each other.

Most positions elsewhere on a college campus are academic or administrative and require formal levels of education. Many foodservice jobs have requirements that are based primarily on previous foodservice experience. Supervisors and managers often need the kind of people skills and experience that will allow them to oversee the hands-on tasks these front line workers perform.

Ask students to imagine themselves in the employee evaluation process for typical foodservice jobs like cook, line server, dishwasher, etc.. What kinds of questions would be appropriate to ask prospective employees for such jobs, and discuss how the interview candidates' responses could be evaluated and their experience validated.

Have students look at the organizational charts shown in Figures 2 and 3 . Then, to illustrate some of these issues further, continue the exercise by asking them to consider a different type of campus dining employee, a marketing manager. He or she will be heavily involved in developing and promoting special events on campus, producing signage and promotional materials that add value or excitement to menu offerings and which improve operating metrics like participation in meals plans by off campus students.

Use the same exercise to explore the kind of experience and skills a foodservice director look for in a prospective IT specialist who will be involved in coordinating a foodservice department's IT operations with those of the main campus.

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