After about 20 years of working in BSU food service, LaFollette's unit manager Jim Elliot quit during winter break.
Elliot was not required to explain his resignation, Ann Talley, director of residence hall dining services, said. However, since he left, her department has had some trouble making up for the loss.
Because numbers were not properly inserted into the food ordering computer program, LaFollette restaurants nearly ran out of food, Talley said.
Fewer boxes arrived and shelves remained empty. Employees at LaFollette's Out of Bounds posted signs over the weekend listing 10-12 items gone from the regular menu.
Freshman Megan Abel said, "You go down there wanting something, and they probably won't have it."
She shops there anyway, she said, because she doesn't have time to walk somewhere else.
Freshman Matt Allison said last semester LaFollette had sandwiches and food ready all the time.
"They haven't really been stocked up on food at all," Allison said.
Talley said she thought former unit manager Jim Elliot had re-ordered food and groceries for LaFollette's restaurants before he left. He didn't. Temporary managers Karen Adkins and Elizabeth VanMatre filled out the order form, instead.
"We thought they had performed some computer tasks to order the food," Talley said. "It turns out they didn't."
VanMatre and Adkins are temporary co-managers. They work full-time in the main office of residence hall dining service. VanMatre is the assistant director of operations, and Adkins is assistant director of personnel, marketing and administration.
"The forecasting was not properly handled," Talley said. "The computer did not actually figure out what needed to be ordered, plus we switched from Mr. Elliot to new management."
Talley said Web sites such as the National Association of College and University Food Services and BSU are advertising the unit manager position.
"I don't like having to say we didn't do a good job," Talley said. "But in this case, we didn't. We're working very hard to return to the service we're accustomed to."
Allison said his roommate filed a formal complaint. Talley said she received four in all, including a phone call from a parent.
The computer problem that came mostly from human error has been fixed, Talley said. She said managers will learn the program, which predicts and orders the amount of food needed, the more they use it.
Abel said she continues to go to LaFollette because she doesn't have time to go anywhere else.
"I usually just suck it up and go anyway," Abel said.
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