Sodexo Wants Crappy Panda Express On Campus

(above) Panda Express' lousy food is an embarrassment to Pandas everywhere
by Cory Lamz & Steve Coulter (with editorial input supplied free of charge by LetsGoDU)

Executives from Panda Express are in talks with multi-national catering giant Sodexo to possibly replace the University of Denver's campus Pub with a Chinese fast-food chain.  Calling Panda Express "Chinese food" is like calling Colorado College an ice hockey powerhouse.

Panda Express serves low quality fast food that would offend DU's Asian students, visiting Chinese diplomats and confuse DU's impressionable HRM students that this type of food is edible for human consumption.

We get it.  DU is broke and needs to bring fast food chains onto campus to rake in cash from starving students about to get hit with another 3.8% tuition hike.  Does anyone remember that the Pub and the  Driscoll Student Center were built with student activity fees to provide services for DU students? Apparently not.

The staff did not say when the decision will be made final, but The Pub could be removed from the space as early as June, according to Scott Weingarten from Panda Express. Panda Express could be operating in the space by August 2011.

"We see continued preference of Asian food. We don't have Asian food on campus – it's one thing we're missing out on, which is one of our top 3-5 categories of student preference [for Sodexho]," said Joe Zemla, campus general manager for Sodexho Dining Services. "With the partnership our company has with Panda Express, it just makes a lot of sense [$$$]."

If The Pub is eventually replaced by Panda Express, the Chinese fast-food restaurant will not serve alcohol – meaning DU will become a dry campus, as The Pub is currently the only location on campus to purchase alcohol.

DU has a world class HRM Program, sends 80% of its students abroad and thinks sticking a Panda Express on campus is a good way to expose DU students to Asian food?

Panda Express will only come to DU if students embrace the replacement, Weingarten and Zemla both said. Students will be polled about Panda Express on campus in the future. Of course over 80% of students supported the return of the Boone mascot in two separate "polls" on campus and we all know how that turned out. [read entire Clarion article].
LetsGoDU Fun Fact - In 2010 actor Danny Glover was arrested outside Sodexo's US Headquaters in Maryland while protesting low wages paid to Sodexo employees.  French owned Sodexo employs 380,000 people around the world and one of the largest food service corporations in the world.

11 comments:

pesimisticfan said...

Panda Express is fantastic

Mannino Saves said...

Wow, that's great! Sesame Cat is the best!!

Pioneers04 said...

In my time @ DU, the food at the pub sucked almost as bad as Panda. It could have improved since but I'm not sure. Also, the alcoholic choices were 3.2 beer and bad wine if I recall correctly. Not sure if anything has changed though.

Anonymous said...

Panda Express is crap. Low quality, unhealthy, and a poor excuse for Chinese. I'd rather chew on my dad's dirty socks.

mexico said...

Wow! This is completely unacceptable. I would expect something like this at Metro State but NEVER at DU.

Anonymous said...

MSG's and dead kittens and puppies for everyone!

Anonymous said...

mexico prefers gerbils

Amy said...

Keep the pub! Great place for students to interact/meet, good food choices, open mic nights, etc.

Anonymous said...

There is no Panda Express on the Colorado College Campus, nor is one being considered.

So, ummm I guess DU is leading the way in crap food on a crap campus.

Anonymous said...

I love the Pub and their sweet potato fries...soooo good! I really hope that the Pub stays

Anonymous said...

I would love to see the Pub retain the old DU sports photos that make the place unique to DU and not turn it in to some generic food court that could be anywhere... Put the Panda Express in one of the vacant restarants near campus and see if it survives there.