Week 3 @ OU!

We're already into our third week here at OU! We got to spend time with front office, purchasing, the Biological Station, room and board, participating in an assessment, administration, payroll, Reslife, and exploring some faculty in res housing.

So on Monday we got to visit with Jenn. She's in charge of the front office on the first floor where she deals mostly with student meal plans. So she explained how most parents don't really understand the system that they have here and I have to say it is a bit on the confusing side. They have Sooner Sense, Meal Points, and block plans. Sooner sense is basically like a debit card that you put money on and can pretty much purchase anything on campus. So if you wanted to buy a meal, clothes, etc. you can use the money on this and it carries on from year to year and won't expire which is great. Meal Points are essentially 'points' that are given to students and each point is equivalent to one dollar. This can be used at any location on campus (Couch restaurants, union food court, Cate's Centre, etc.), and the block plans or weekly meals are either x-amounts of meals for the total semester (not year) or x-amount of meals you can use per week (like 10, 12, etc.). She's also planning on giving us a really good campus tour later on so you'll have to stay tuned for that! We also had our first meeting with marketing later that afternoon but still haven't received some info about menu items from the Flying Cow yet. We basically just discussed everything that they would need from us and how they would be handling recreating the menu. We also decided on a roll out date in July for promoting fitter foods. Just a quick meeting and we'll be spending more time with them once we get the full menu completed.

Day 11 on Tuesday was probably my second favorite so far! We got to travel to OU's Biological Station right (literally) on the border of Texas! It's about an hour away from Dallas on the outskirts of Ardmore. So we drove up with Frank who has been with the university for almost 30 years and is the newly appointed director of housing and food service. So from the Norman campus it was about a two hour drive but we got to chat about Oklahoma and the Bio station on our way up. Once we got to the station we got to take a look around. The area is directly on Lake Texoma which has buoys across that middle that divide Texas and Oklahoma. The land for this campus was actually donated from alumni and is probably around 100 acres or so I'd say, maybe a little bit more. It is stunning. It reminds me so much of a military style camp in the building styles and interior design. Very homey and secluded. So the Bio station basically serves as a location for summer sessions of Zoology/Biology students to gain field work and hands on stuff. They go into the woods and fishing on the lake to collect specimens of any and everything you can think of. Apparently they have a two headed rattle snake some where on the campus but we didn't get to check it out. They have bunk bed style accommodations for those staying there and the caf is only open during the times the summer sessions are ongoing.

Wednesday, Day 12, we got to spend some time in room and board, got to assist on an assessment of one of their food locations, visited administration, and met with Flying Cow. Room and Board was with Danna, and she works with students and their parents as well to set them up with the work study program I mentioned before. They recently just added a meal plan option specifically for these students which has allowed them to open 80 new spots for more students. Since they typically eat prior to or during their shifts, they can decrease the amount of meals they supply the students creating more funds to increase work study students. It's amazing how much they really get to help out the students that go to their university that require financial aid. Our assessment was actually really great and very eye opening. We got to work with Shawn who is the manager of Couch Express and Xcetera. She typically does these with Kevin who is the director over at the union food court where we did the assessment. So we were at Wendy's and basically got to look through the cleanliness of the dining area, soda fountains, dry/cold storage, evacuation sheets, and a bunch of other things. The assessments they do are something the university does to help ensure that food locations across the campus are up to standards in addition to having health inspector visits. After lunch we headed down to administration and spoke with Nancy. She takes care of setting meal plans up as well as making travel arrangements for both departments, a lot of financial work with numbers and spread sheets to make sure labor, payments to the bursar, and changes made to meal plans are good. She also does counts for employee meals where she figures out how many meals are purchased in one location compared to another. Once we were done there, we met briefly with Curtis and Rhonda (manager's at the Flying Cow Cafe) to discuss how our fitter foods menu was going. They're going to come up with a few options they think might work on the fitter foods menu as well as how they won't the roll out to go. That brought us to the end of our day!

So on Thursday we were with payroll in the morning. Brandie (in payroll) got to explain to us how they manage that area of housing and food service. She gets to deal with all the new hires which includes doing background checks, lots of paper work, and managing the direct deposit stuff. So every two weeks, they go through all the logged hours that employees have work from clocking in (those who aren't on salary base) and make sure that nothing is a miss, then they input these in the computer and that is how they make sure everyone is payed correctly. If there is a problem when an employee gets paid, they will typically get a phone call and review everything. At the start of every month, they also get time sheets from those staff who are on salary and input the days that were taken as sick leave, vacation etc. which automatically adjusts their pay for the month. She is also in charge of posting any new jobs which are available through the university.

Next we were off to Reslife with Erin who is in charge of the Walker Centre residence hall. So essentially she is in charge of about 1200 students! Crazy I know. There are 4 of them to cover all 4000 frosh since it is mandatory for them to live in res for the first year. In total, there are about 70 RA's (one per hallway) and 2 RD's per building to help her. They essentially hold floor meetings, do room checks, and help out for program events put on by the faculty-in-res professors. So Erin gets to deal with a whole variety of things herself. So say if someone was caught with alcohol in their room (which is not aloud since they are a dry campus), the RA will send down the individual to talk with Erin and she has to go over rules on this basis as well as give them their first or however many strike. She is also like the 'house mom' so if any freshman, or RA for that matter, needs to come and cry on someones should then they'll go to down her office on the first floor of the building.

In the afternoon we sat in on a manager's meeting with everyone from housing & food service. They were going over things like switching suppliers for non-slip shoes (H&FS will give $30 towards a new pair of non-slip shoes for their employees, per year, from a company which makes them - this goes out for bid and the best offer wins), crimson corner (frosh week event), using C-bord, and a few other small things.

We then got to go and check out one of the faculty-in-res rooms that are currently being renovated for the summer for a new prof and their family. This is hands down one of the coolest things I've ever heard of a university doing! So essentially what it is is there are 6 of these apartments available on campus (one in each residence building) which are used for professors only and their families. There is a waiting list for profs who are interested, however the president of the university will typically choose those who he feels would be good for the position. So if chosen, then the prof and their family gets to stay for up to 3 years in the apartment free of rent and utilities, given free meal plans, fully furnished living room, as well as a budget to run programs which is the main part of the deal. As a FIR, then the professor must hold 'programs' for the students within the building, at least 3 per semester with a mixture of academic and for fun type events. The apartments consist of a living room open to the dining area and kitchen and this section is where the programs are typically held. It can be closed off from the rest of the apartment (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, several storage spots) where their personal belongings are during when the program is run. This main area is what is furnished by the apartment and it is beauuutiful! We actually got an opportunity to go and visit with a french professor who is currently living as a FIR. He explained how he runs some of the programs for the students in the Adam Centre where his apartment is at (all apartments are on the first floor). The most successful program that he's held with his wife for the students was a 'massage night', which he's done both years he's been there, where they rented students from the massage school in OKC and allowed students to sign up for 10 minute sessions.. for free!! How amazing is that?? He's also held during finals week midnight breakfasts where they make pancakes for the studying students, as well as a Harry Potter week where right before the last movie came out in theaters he played through all of the movies. It is the coolest thing.

Our last day of the week Friday started out with Matt in purchasing. Matt gets to contact the vendors and suppliers for near everything that the university orders from. He sends out bids for certain things that housing or food service would need. This is mandatory for the university. So, for example, if the university wants a vendor for locally brewed coffee (which they are currently in the process of sending out a bid for), then they make a proposal and post it so that all places within Oklahoma have an opportunity to make an offer. They don't necessarily take the best price offer and have to take into consideration who in the long run may be able to provide more that the university may be interested in besides just the one main product. So if anyone from any of the various locations on campus (concessions, couch, crossroads, etc.) need to bring in a new product, piece of equipment, fabric, etc., then they have to contact Matt and he'll prepare something to be sent out to potential vendors. He also explained that the university can bring in more then just one vendor and be able to have a prime vendor, but also a secondary vendor to supply other product.

Afterwards, we got to sit in on a meeting with Matt and Shawn with Coca-Cola reps who were giving them information on the "Coke Freestyle" machine. This isn't yet available in Canada (I asked!), but it's been available in certain states only within the US but they're planning on expanding. It is THE coolest thing I have ever heard of, and it took 7 years for them to develop. This machine is purely touch screen and has over 100 different flavors in it! So you just pick and choose what you want and then you put your cup underneath and it'll pour. They also said that eventually you'll be able to create your own drinks via a mobile device and scan it onto the machine and it will make your drink for you like that! After that we got to go on a run with Sean Bacon and Matt to pick up some scanners for the university, went to lunch, then we were essentially done for the day! We got to go home early :) We can't believe we're almost half way through!