The university is working toward a partnership between the new restaurants in the Hub and hospitality management.

Renovations were some of the concerns students addressed during the Open Student Forum last night.

“One of the things coming out of this change (Hub renovations) is to create more opportunities for students, ” Vice President for Administration David Creamer said. “We don’t envision any cut in job opportunities. In fact, we expect a possibility of higher pay for students in management positions in those restaurants.”

Creamer also addressed the Oscar Ritchie project being pushed behind the renovations for Franklin Hall. He said issues with a growing enrollment and accreditation created the need to push up the work on Franklin Hall, but Oscar Ritchie is still on the project list.

Parking lot and road resurfacing we also addressed. Manager of Parking Services Randy Ristow said the S-37 lot across from Eastway, the R-6 lot next to it and the Rockwell Hall lots will be resurfaced over the summer. A new lot will be created by the Liquid Crystal Institute.

“As weather improves, we will patch the roads,” Creamer said. “If there is too much deterioration to repair them, we will deal with that.”

Creamer also addressed the increased price of parking permits, but the steady cost of parking tickets.

“The permit price was not designed to facilitate a parking deck,” he said. “They were raised to help create more surface parking on campus. We wanted to take time to see the alternatives to raising ticket prices to keep people complying with the guidelines.”

All Campus Programming Board president Natalie Gialluca announced plans to have a Flash Week surrounding this year’s FlashFest to include more activities.

Scott McCallen, director of leadership development for Kent Interhall Council, addressed a question from the audience about working with Students Eliminating Environmental Destruction to provide each residence hall room with a recycling bin.

“New initiatives are being taken by Kent Interhall Council to put more recycling bins in the residence halls and replace existing bins,” McCallen said. “We would like to work with SEED to further this program.”

The university’s contract with Coca-Cola was brought into question during the forum, and it was suggested that the university should release its contract with the company.

“We are in a very long-term contract with Coca-Cola,” Creamer said. “It is virtually impossible for us to release ourselves from it.”

John Flasco, director of procurement, addressed the university’s current plan to investigate the allegations.

“We’ve been in contact with Coke to hear their side of the story,” he said. “We always have an option to bring someone from Coke to campus to answer our questions. We are in the fact-finding stage right now.”

E-mail: kmills@kent.edu