Students expressed concern during a discussion forum Wednesday night that a member of the advisory committee – who will review proposals for the possible outsourcing of ISU Dining – may hold conflicting interests.

Rosa Avelar, sophomore in hotel, restaurant and institution management, is an employee of ISU Dining and said Mark North, executive director of the Iowa State Center, should not have been included on the 21-member committee. North is an employee of SMG, the company that handles concessions at the Iowa State Center, which is owned by ARAMARK, one of the competitors for the food-service contract.

“It seems like he’s an employee of ARAMARK, which means it’s a conflict of interest,” Avelar said.

North said he would not show any special interest in ARAMARK’s offer once the committee begins reviewing proposals after Dec. 16.

“I’ll treat ARAMARK’s proposal like all the rest,” he said. “I have no personal interest in ARAMARK getting the contract. My employer is SMG, not ARAMARK.”

He said he will fulfill his role on the committee with as much neutrality as possible.

“I was asked to be an objective member of this advisory committee and that’s what I’ll do,” he said. “We have to keep the best interest of the clients at heart.”

Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, defended the decision to include North on the committee.

“Mr. North represents a heavy user of ISU Dining as director of the Iowa State Center,” he said. “To not include that kind of a customer would be a mistake. All of the other users of the service are represented. I really believe it would be inappropriate to eliminate them because of that relationship.”

Warren Madden, vice president of business and finance, said North should be included on the committee.

“The Iowa State Center is the largest catering venue at Iowa State and catering is an important part of the food programs,” Madden said. “We felt it important to have that representative as part of the team.”

He said several members of the committee have ties to outside organizations and he doesn’t view that as problematic.

“There’s a member of the Professional and Scientific Council that represents the employee group, so, presumably, she’s representing the staff,” he said. “There are a number of those kinds of relationships, but I don’t consider them to be conflicts of interests.”

Avelar, who opposes outsourcing, said she was dissatisfied with the results of Wednesday’s forum at which Hill, Madden and Todd Holcomb, associate vice president for student affairs and interim director of ISU Dining, spoke.

“They didn’t really answer all of the questions I wanted answers to about ISU Dining’s future,” she said.

Hill said he understood students’ frustrations but said more answers would be available as the review process progressed.

“The answers for the questions weren’t there,” he said. “We could only talk in broad terms because there haven’t been conclusions. You can only get those answers at the conclusion of the process.”