After much delay Chick-fil-A along with Salona Grill and Jazzman’s Caf opened Monday with a large student, faculty and staff turnout.
” I think it is great that students on this campus now have this type of facility offered to them,” Stephen Hulbert, University president, said. ” I am looking forward to additional renovations in the student union and cafeteria so that students, faculty and staff will have state of the art facilities.”
According to Jamie Leblanc, retail manager for Sodexho, she and Paul Beier, general manager for Sodexho, attended a licensing orientation at the Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta to review company policies and philosophies. Leblanc has also done extensive training at the Chick-fil-A located in Southland Mall.
“This is a great new improvement in the food services offered to students at Nicholls, because there is more variety and we have a lot more cooperative support as far as marketing and specials,” Leblanc said. “If anything students should just try the new food court; it is a great way to support the University and eat on campus.”
Brenda Haskins, director of auxiliary services, said the Chick-fil-A project was put in the food service contract since mid-May, and the actual work on Chick-fil-A began in June.
“We anticipated Chick-fil-A’ to be open for the beginning of the fall semester but nothing was like the original timeline we had estimated,” Haskins said. “Everything took longer, but we are glad it is finally opening and hope to have a great reaction from the students.”
Mike Davis, assistant vice president of procurement and physical plant operations and purchasing, said there were a number of factors that were not elaborated on, which delayed the opening of Chick-fil-A’ for the beginning of the fall semester. The fire marshal inspected the new facilities and gave his approval to open on Friday.
Chick-fil-A Express will be open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m to
9 p.m. while Jazzman’s and Salona Grill will open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
According to Beier, the food court will not be open on weekends because in the past Sodexho tried weekend food services and received a small student turnout.
“This is a step, with an emphasis on step, in the right direction that is better late than never,” Jarret Hubbell, psychology senior from Thibodaux, said.
Beier said Chick-fil-A has a standard within the company to close on Sundays and any violation of this policy permits the company to take away the vendor’s license.
Chick-fil-A sets its own prices and runs its own menu. The Chick-fil-A Express menu will concentrate on Chick-fil-A’s popular menu items such as four different Chick-fil-A sandwiches, salad, nuggets, fries, coleslaw and lemonade.
He said Chick-fil-A has different levels of restaurants and because there was not adequate space in the student union for a full service restaurant, the Chick-fil-A on campus will be an express. An express is a smaller unit that will offer students the core menu items.
Leblanc said it will be more of a self-service food court than before to keep the line down and to make sure all the food is fresh.
Beier said cash and checks will be taken at two registers and there will be an express lane for colonel cards only. He said ads with coupons were put in the previous issue of the Nicholls Worth and door hangers were put in the dormitories to announce the grand opening of Chick-fil-A. He said all Chick-fil-A coupons would be redeemable at the Nicholls site.
“It is great to be able to have something like this on campus,” Dan Price, general studies senior from Cutoff, said. “Chick-fil-A and the other new eating facilities will put Nicholls on the map as far as recruitment.”
Haskins said the opening Chick-fil-A will be a good retention and recruitment factor for the University.
“We wanted to offer students all the brand names they have grown up with so that when they arrive on campus they will be impressed,” Haskins said. “Our goal is to help keep current students here and attract potential students to campus.”
According to Beier, Sodexho is currently adding to staff and will continue to hire additional staff with the opening of the privatized housing. He said Sodexho has been soliciting for student workers for part time positions.
“To me it is very exciting to see the drastic changes that the University has been going through, and I expect customers will be pleased with the opening of Chick-fil-A,” Paul Beier, general manager of Sodexho said.” It was unfortunate that it has taken longer than we expected, however we will bring new and exciting things to the students.”