INC NEWS - Duke freshmen to receive $50 to spend in local restaurants (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

We're looking forward to hearing details of DukeCard
explansion off-campus as university officials
promised.

~John Schelp
OWDNA 

Duke freshmen to receive $50 to spend in local
restaurants 
By Paul Bonner, Herald-Sun, 6 July 2006    

First-year students at Duke will be getting a little
something extra along with their class schedules this
fall -- and who says there's no free lunch? 

The university said Wednesday it will give each of the
approximately 1,600 freshmen $50 to spend at selected
restaurants on or near Ninth Street, not far from
dorms on East Campus. 

Duke Dining/Durham Dollars, as the pilot program is
named, will introduce students to off-campus dining as
well as provide some extra business for those
restaurants, officials said. 

"It's all part of our desire to have students find out
about and visit Durham and part of our initiative to
support those businesses very close to our campus
borders," said Kemel Dawkins, Duke's vice president of
campus services. 

Nineteen restaurants were hand-delivered letters
Wednesday inviting them to participate. 

"We think it's a great thing," said Mark Cromwell,
manager at the Mad Hatter's Café and Bake Shop, one of
the selected restaurants. 

Students also approved. 

"I eat and shop and do many things in Durham," said
Elliott Wolf, president of Duke Student Government.
"It took me awhile to get introduced to all that.
Out-of-state students often go through this period
where they stay on campus and don't see what Durham
has to offer." 

But others said the gift, while welcome, isn't a
substitute for reforms by Duke to student spending
accounts or meal plans that would make it more
convenient for students to patronize off-campus dining
and other services throughout the year. 

They also have pointed to other universities,
including UNC and N.C. State University, that
incorporate an optional bank debit account with
student ID cards. 

"This is a nice gesture, but it's only a gesture,"
said said John Schelp, president of the Old West
Durham Neighborhood Association. "They assured us they
are going to expand the DukeCard to off-campus, and
we're looking forward to seeing the details of that
expansion." 

The neighborhood abuts the Ninth Street area. 

Dawkins said the administration still is considering
the debit card feature for its student IDs. 

Alternately, merchants and others have suggested that
Duke expand off-campus use of student spending
accounts or reduce fees and commissions for a
meal-plan feature called Merchants on Points. 

Dawkins said such options are still under
consideration, too. 

Schelp and Wolf said they'd like to see the $50 gift
card include downtown restaurants in Brightleaf Square
and the American Tobacco Historic District, to which
Schelp added Northgate Mall. 

Dawkins said the program will be evaluated during the
year and could be expanded. 

On-campus dining at Duke has improved recently as
well, Dawkins and Wolf agreed, especially on East
Campus. 

Last school year, students complained about too few
options and poor quality at The Marketplace, an East
Campus dining hall. 

Food service vendor Aramark was a frequent target of
student ire. In June, Duke announced a new agreement
with Compass Group, which manages six campus locations
under the brands Bon Appetit and Chartwells. 

Wolf said he ate at Bon Appetit this summer. 

"It's amazing how much better it is," he said. 

"Institutionally, we've made a significant additional
investment in dining, and on East Campus in
particular, with more resources, including managerial
resources," Dawkins said. "We also took a hard look at
the food product and selected a vendor who's going to
pay lot of attention to locally grown produce, fresh
foods and lot more offerings made from scratch." 

****