After a record-breaking year, the Corp announced at its first-ever shareholders meeting plans to open a coffee shop in the new McDonough School of Business building. Jesse Scharff (COL ’09), Kevin Lynch (COL ’09), and Adah Berkovich (SFS ’09) were also introduced as the new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.
The Corp also unveiled plans to pilot DVD vending machines and expand their catering services in the coming year.
Having put in a bid for space in the new building, Corp officers have been in talks with the McDonough School of Business for a year, according to Virginia Flavin, the MSB’s Director of Facilities Planning and Special Events. Flavin said that space has already been designated for a Corp coffee shop; the last step for the new officers to secure the space is a presentation to the Dean of the MSB.
The Corp may not present to the Dean for some time, according to Scharff, because the leadership is still in a transitional state, as the new officers take over from the outgoing leaders—CEO Ted Reilly (COL ’08), CFO Martha Herfurth (MSB ’08) and COO Jillian Perlow (COL ’08).
“Opening a new coffee service is something I’m very excited about, but there are a lot of uncertainties,” Scharff said.
According to Reilly, the new coffee shop, still unnamed, will cater to business school students with fare like breakfast sandwiches, salads and yogurt.
Although consistently poor returns have forced the Corp to close Movie Mayhem, they will reenter the movie rental market, replacing the failed DVD service with two new DVD Kiosks. Scharff said that the kiosks, to be installed outside Vital Vittles and in the Southwest Quad, should be up and running this semester. The Corp has been working to secure the deal with Canteens—the company that provides all campus vending machines—through Vice President of Auxiliary Services Margie Bryant.
Bryant was not available to comment for the article.
Reilly insisted that the DVD kiosk program will be more successful than Movie Mayhem.
“Canteens can provide a wider variety of movies at a lower cost than the Corp could by itself,” Reilly said.
The Corp also hopes to see Uncommon Catering, currently a subsidiary of Uncommon Grounds, become its own entity, with its own director and employee base. Currently, the service provides catering services at cheaper prices for student groups and school events, such as GAAP weekend. Scharff, concerned with space constraints, said that he sees an independent catering location as a longer-term goal.
As for the new officers’ own plans, Scharff, Lynch and Berkovich are focused on merging IT and marketing, in order to improve the breadth and depth of the Corp’s online services. Berkovich said that she would like to see the addition of a Craigslist-type network through the Corp to make buying and selling on campus easier.
