The Merchants on Points System (MOPS) has added a new vendor that promises to be popular with pizza-hungry Tufts students: Dominos Pizza. The change became effective Sept. 1 after Helen's, formerly Pizzeria Roma, chose to discontinue its participation in the program.
Dining Services was interested in adding Dominos to MOPS because on busy nights in past years, students would often have to wait 90 minutes to two hours for a pizza because of a shortage of pizza vendors.
"It is our belief that by adding Dominos, the pressure will be somewhat relieved from the other restaurants and students can get their food more quickly," said Director of Dining Service Patti Lee Klos.
While it may have a somewhat limited menu, Dominos has an excellent reputation for speedy delivery and is very popular among the student body, Klos said.
Not all students on campus, however, are excited by the addition of Dominos to a Tufts dining program. "I'm disappointed in Dining Services' decision to add Dominos to MOPS. Much of the public is not aware that [former Dominos CEO] Thomas Monaghan is extremely conservative and uses his money and power to promote anti-gay initiatives," said Patrick Brown, senior and former Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community Representative to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate.
Monaghan, the billionaire founder of the Dominos pizza chain, has pushed for anti-gay legislature in a variety of ways. Most notably were the anti-gay messages he circulated in Credo, the now-defunct Catholic newspaper he owned.
Monaghan also owns several conservative websites and has personally spent thousands of dollars to push anti-gay initiatives to ballot in Michigan.
"I don't think Tufts should be promoting homophobia with such a large and vocal LGBT community," Brown said.
But Director of the LGBT Center at Tufts Dona Yarbrough believes that while Monaghan may personally be anti-gay, the Dominos chains have stopped reflecting his personal views since he stepped down as CEO.
"I did recently hear a Domino's spokesperson say that the company has now included sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy, so perhaps the company is changing a little for the better," she said.
Klos was unaware of any possible anti-gay bias within the Dominos Pizza organization.
Yarbrough added that regardless, "it's completely appropriate for students to raise awareness about Domino's history and encourage others students to boycott the company."
Dining Services worked in conjunction with the TCU Senate to reach this decision. "It is really important if not essential to get student input to find out what places to use [for MOPS]," Klos said. "The Senate helped us by conducting surveys of the student body and providing us with feedback."
Klos guessed that Pizzeria Roma decided to discontinue its involvement with MOPS due to the high costs to restaurants.
Among other requirements, vendors must have specific credit card machines whose cost was until recently in the thousands of dollars, though new technology has allowed a substantial drop in price.
Only seven vendors are allowed to participate in the MOPS program at a time, and Dominos showed a keen interest in replacing Pizzeria Roma.
The other six restaurants on the MOPS program are Andrea's House of Pizza, Espresso Pizza, Panda Palace, Pasta Pisa, Caf?© de Cr??pe, and Wing Works.
