Students who attended a meeting Tuesday to discuss the future of the Maintenance Shop’s lunch services said they are optimistic they can increase the shop’s sales. Administrators, however, expressed concern over the cost of trying to increase sales when it has been losing money for almost 15 years.

Even when the M-Shop was owned by the Memorial Union, it was not a break-even operation, said Richard Reynolds, director of the Memorial Union.

Reynolds, along with Thomas Hill, vice president for student affairs, Todd Holcomb, associate vice president for student affairs, and Jon Lewis, director of campus dining, attended the meeting to address student concerns and answer questions.

Fewer than 15 students attended the meeting.

Mara Spooner, senior in political science, said she thinks the M-Shop could be saved by students through advertising efforts.

“I fully believe that if more students knew that this gem of a place existed, more people would come here,” Spooner said. Lewis said he was concerned about the longevity of the results that advertising would have.

“I think this particular location is always going to have problems because of location, location, location,” he said.

Lewis said although ISU Dining has done more advertising this year, a lot of advertising for the M-Shop is handled by the Student Union Board.

Talitha Fox, SUB president, said it would be willing to increase its advertisement of the M-Shop and would help highlight its lunchtime activities.

Yet Hill said even if steps were taken to increase sales at the M-Shop, there would be no guarantee of success. He said even if it was decided to try and find a way for the M-Shop to make money, something would need to be done to cover the losses it is experiencing right now.

“If this were a break-even operation, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Hill said.

Hill said an idea would be to discontinue lunch services, allow two weeks for advertising, and then have an “end-of-the-year” bash at the M-Shop.

He said he is planning to meet with students to discuss their ideas further, but said questions need to be answered before the decision to keep the lunch services around can be reached.

“How long does it take? How do we cover the deficit?” Hill said.

If lunch services are discontinued, Reynolds said, the space could still be available for students to study and eat in during the day. Hill said that lunch at the M-Shop is not being eliminated permanently.

“If things are better, times are better, there’s a demand, we’ll be here,” Hill said.

In order for the M-Shop to begin making money, sales would have to increase by 58 percent, Lewis said.

Hill said the M-Shop is not the only dining venue on campus being considered for cuts to reduce costs.