Despite a clause in the Merchants on Points (MOPS) contract requiring vendors to give the University 30 days notice before leaving the program, Tufts will not pursue Rose's for abandoning the plan after only two days, Dining Services Director Patti Lee said yesterday. Tufts officials are seeking another Chinese restaurant to join the program.
Since the restaurant was on a trial basis, Klos said, Tufts will not push the issue.
"We're not going to force them to serve us when we're not committed to them," she said. The program was to be reevaluated at the end of the semester to gauge student opinion on Rose's service.
Klos and senators discussed possible participants for the program, which allows students to purchase take-out or delivered food from participating restaurants using points or Dining Dollars.
After only two days as the fourth vendor in the program, the Boston Ave. Chinese restaurant decided that it was unable to meet student demand and dropped out of MOPS last week.
While both parties agreed to the contract, Klos said that choosing to enforce the 30-days rule "would not have been good business." She said that dissatisfied customers was not the goal of the MOPS program, noting that "Rose's was quite adamant about not being able to handle the business."
Rose's was warned that the initial high demand would place a strain on the restaurant's capacity, according to Klos. But the quantity of orders during the first two days exceeded her own expectations, as well as those of Rose's owner Sam Pan.
Pan told the Daily that despite having hired six new staff members, the high volume of MOPS orders caused too much of a delay in delivery, and that meals were getting cold. "We need a guarantee of good food for the students," he said.
Senate services committee member Josh Belkin said that Rose's received 38 MOPS orders on its first night with the program, and just under 100 orders the next evening - actually less than the 100-120 new orders typically generated by MOPS.
Rose's withdrawal marked yet another delay in the process of finding a fourth vendor this year. Problems with equipment delivery and barriers in communication with the two restaurants have also slowed the process. "It's been a long struggle to get the program back to where it was with four vendors," Belkin said.
Before Urban Gourmet quit the program last spring, MOPS employed four vendors, including the three current vendors - Espresso Pizza, Near East Caf?©, and Wing Works. The search for a new vendor has been ongoing since Urban Gourmet's decision not to renew its contract.
In an online survey conducted by the TCU senate and Dining Services, a majority of students voted in favor of adding a Chinese food vendor to the MOPS list. Of 857 voters, 289 students chose Rose's over the five other choices. Golden Light, another Chinese restaurant located in Davis Square, was runner-up with 106 votes.
Now that Rose's will not participate in the program, the search for a Chinese vendor continues. Rose's returned the special-ordered equipment for the MOPS program, so once a vendor is arranged "we can be up in running in a few days," Belkin said.
Golden Light delivers until 2 a.m., the latest of any restaurant in the area, while Rose's only stays open until 11 p.m. This fact was not included on the online survey, and some students feel that the information would have greatly swayed student votes. "I think that the MOPS program is for convenience more than for quality of food," freshman Rachel Sliman said. "Convenience-wise it's a better deal to have a restaurant that's open later - otherwise students could just go out to dinner."
Past attempts to sign Golden Light to the MOPS program have not gone smoothly. Citing communication difficulties with the restaurant, Senator Ed Schwehm said he "had to assume that they didn't really want to be on MOPS or be bothered by us anymore."
Belkin said that in the search for a new vendor he has attempted to move past any communication difficulties, and has brought a Chinese-speaking friend to help with the process.
The Senate is doing everything it can to make sure the program is finalized, Belkin said. "The Senate's been ready. We're just trying to help Dining Services get this done as soon as possible."
