In Winter 2006, Porter was hired by Onondaga Community College (OCC) to assist the College in conducting market research and developing recommendations to enhance services and increase revenues in its dining, vending and bookstore operations. The College was going through some significant changes on its campus including adding residence halls, so campus administrators asked our team to assess the impact these changes would have on the campus and specifically on demands for campus dining, vending and the bookstore.

Our work began with two days on site to conduct reviews of the OCC’s facilities and to facilitate focus groups and personal interviews. Our team used the information gathered to develop a web-based survey, which was distributed to the campus community and designed to support and/or challenge our team’s initial findings during our research on campus. With the results of the survey, our team developed recommendations and presented them to the OCC project team. In addition, the College also asked our team to examine the pros and cons of self-op versus contract operations at OCC for its foodservice and vending operations and to provide our recommendations to the College.

Following Porter’s work with OCC in developing master plan recommendations for its dining, vending and bookstore operations, our team was enlisted to re-bid the individual management contracts for each. The cumulative financial result of the re-bid of these three contracts was an increased return to the College.