Lallah Howard, associate vice president for business affairs, said despite the vacancy of the executive director,dining services is still planning some change.
Howard is serving as interim executive director of dining services after the resignation of Nadeem Siddiqui June 15.
Howard said she is serving as interim executive director because dining services reports to her.
"It just made more sense," she said.
Since taking over as interim executive director,Howard said she has become more involved in the day to day.
"We're embarking in strategic planning and I'm involved in that," she said.
Dining services strategic planning entails shortterm goals to be completed before the fall session begins,mid-term goals - such as revenue - and longterm goals such as facility renovation.
Howard said any facility planning and construction is normally a fi ve to 10 year process.
"It's one of the things we need to tackle in the next couple of months," she said.
Howard said dining services has four big areas that they are planning to change.
The first being sustainability initiatives.
"Everything from trying to source locally prepared foods to compost-ability options," she said.
A&M has created the position of sustainability officer and Kelly Wellman has been appointed.
"She's working on ways to be more environmentally friendly," Howard said.
The second area is facilities rehabilitation, which includes updates and maintenance, and the third is customer service, including customer service training during the summer.
"Customers are an extremely important part of our environment and we want to make sure they feel welcome,"Howard said.
The final area is food safety and food quality. Howardsaid with Texas A&M President Elsa Murano's strong background in food safety, it is suiting to consider this area.
"It's very important to us that our dining services look up to her standards," she said.
Howard noted that dining services has no issues with food safety or quality and that the change is proactive.
"We want to be sure we're very well qualified," she said.
While serving in the interim, Howard is leading the search for the permanent director.
The search began within the past two weeks, Howard said, with a job posting online.
"The university seeks a dynamic, experienced and engaging individual to lead a dining services program which is in a transitional phase," the posting states. "This is an opportunity for a motivated leader to significantly shape the direction and success of Dining Services at TAMU over the next decade."
The post goes on to state changes in place for the University.
"TAMU is in the midst of a significant capital improvement program in which Dining Services is an important participant."
Howard said she will narrow the executive director applicants to approximately five then create a committee, which will in turn, narrow the applicants to two. The final two will visit A&M before the selection.
"I have talked to members of student government to be on my committee," Howard said.
The selection, Howard said, will most likely occur in the fall in order to receive student input.
"I don't want to rush the process, since it's very important," she said.
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