Auxiliary Services

Important Information about Centro Route Reductions

UPDATE November 1, 2021: Parking and Transportation Services has restored weekend late night service to the Warehouse Shuttle route. The route has now been fully restored following Centro’s service reductions in September.

UPDATE October 6, 2021: Parking and Transportation Services has restored weekday late night service to the Warehouse Shuttle route. More information here.

Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:

Last week, Centro, our campus transportation partner, announced route reductions [PDF] due to an ongoing shortage of drivers. These route reductions are effective beginning today, Monday, Sept. 13. Most notably, Centro will no longer provide service after 8 p.m. In response, Parking and Transportation Services has allocated additional resources to minimize the impact on our campus community.

Daytime Service (6 a.m.-8 p.m.)

·         Centro schedules for campus routes will not change during daytime hours. If you rely on Centro, you may notice increased delays during the busiest times of day, as Centro will not be able to add extra buses to these routes as they typically would to alleviate congestion.

·         Parking and Transportation Services will supplement any lost service from Centro with ’Cuse Trolleys during times of peak usage.

·         Please build in extra travel time when traveling to and from campus.

Evening and Late Night (8 p.m.-3 a.m.)

·         Centro will cease operating after 8 p.m.

·         Parking and Transportation Services will provide ’Cuse Trolleys, to cover the South Campus shuttle routes previously administered by Centro.

·         The shuttles will run as scheduled, approximately every 15 minutes from 7:30 p.m. until 3 a.m.

·         Some late-night shuttle services with low ridership will be temporarily suspended after 8 p.m. These include the Euclid Shuttle, the Warehouse Shuttle and the Late Night Campus Shuttle. Passengers needing transportation along these routes should contact the on-demand Parking and Transportation Services Safety Escort Shuttle, which will expand its hours to run from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The safety shuttle service can be requested by calling 315.443.RIDE (7433).

Event Transportation

·         Guests attending events on campus will not notice a change in service.

·         Any reduction in Centro service will be supplemented by Parking and Transportation Services vehicles or via another third-party service provider.

Other Centro Routes

·         Centro routes including Nob Hill, Westcott and the Destiny USA weekend shuttle will experience service reductions.

·         Please visit the Centro website for the most up-to-date schedules.

Access to Campus

·         All students with a valid permit may use any Orange lot after 4:30 p.m. and on weekends, except during stadium events.

·         These lots include Comstock Avenue Garage (when an attendant is present), College Place lot, Harrison lot, Henry lot, Irving Ave Hill lot, Ostrom lot, Raynor Ave lot, Standart West lot, University Ave North lot, University Ave South lot, Women’s Building North lot, Women’s Building South lot, Manley North and South lots (Manley Field House), South Campus Housing lots and the Skytop lot.

The University will update its campus shuttle website to reflect the new service schedules as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we adjust to the Centro service reductions and work to do all we can to mitigate disruption to our community.

Sincerely,
Kris Klinger
Senior Associate Vice President for Auxiliary Services

Concessions Upgrades at the Stadium to Enhance the Game Day Experience for Fans

When the Carrier Dome opened back in 1980, the game day experience was different. Simple. Bare bones. You drove to the game, parked, watched the game, got back in your car, went home.

“In the 1970s and 80s, there was no thought put into the food experience, drinks or retail at sporting events,” says Michael Bekolay, founder and CEO of Venue Hospitality Solutions. “The architects back then didn’t focus on ‘dwell time,’ or the experience happening beyond the field of play. Food and drink options were simple and maybe you had a hot dog, a popcorn or a fountain soda.”

Read the full story at Syracuse University News.

Daktronics, Diversified delivers LED video wall to Syracuse University

To deliver a curved LED video wall for Syracuse University’s Schine Student Center, Daktronics, a video display manufacturer, partnered with Diversified, a technology solutions provider, to design, manufacture and install the school’s new media wall for the 2021 spring semester, according to a press release.

“As the centerpiece of the newly renovated Schine Student Center, the video wall allows us to build community through shared experiences such as campus programming and athletic events,” Christine Scollay, interim director of Syracuse University’s Student Centers and Programming Services, said in the release. “The video board has helped us create a fresh and relevant space for students.”

Read the full story at Digital Signage Today.

Honey Produced by Campus Honeybees Available Soon

In spring 2020, South Campus became home to six honeybee hives, which house over 300,000 honeybees. In their first year on campus, the bees harvested enough nectar from campus plants and trees to create over 300 pounds of honey. The honey is harvested twice a year and has been bottled for sale on campus. A small initial offering of campus honey in early 2021 proved immensely popular, with the honey quickly selling out across campus.

In the next few weeks, University community members will be able to purchase the honey in the Campus Store in the Schine Student Center, as well as in campus convenience stores.

Housing Committee Announces Results of Review, Acquisition of The Marshall

Updated apartments and suite-stye units for undergraduates living on campus, and additional housing on South Campus for juniors and seniors, graduate students and others are just some of the priority items in Syracuse University’s new housing strategy. The strategy, which follows the completion of a comprehensive housing review that began in 2019, prioritizes student feedback and seeks to meet the needs of today’s undergraduate and graduate students.

In July 2019, Syracuse University announced a holistic review of its on-campus student housing to better understand residential options and determine future needs in support of enriching the student experience. A committee made up of representatives from across campus performed qualitative and quantitative analysis on data collected from engagements with more than 7,000 students, faculty and staff members. The committee solicited input through focus groups, engagement sessions and three separate online surveys. Data collection continued throughout the summer and fall of 2020 to assess the pandemic’s effects on the local housing market and campus housing trends.

Read the full story at Syracuse University News.

Syracuse University Affiliated with Award-Winning Fair Labor Groups

Syracuse University is a longtime affiliate of the Fair Labor Association, which has been nominated for a 2021 Classy Award that will be announced in September.

The Classy Awards honor the world’s most innovative nonprofit organizations and social enterprises. The Fair Labor Association is one of 50 finalists in the People’s Choice award category.

Rachel Duffy, director of trademark licensing at Syracuse University, serves as the University’s liaison to the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC). Duffy, who also serves on the monitoring committee of the FLA and is a member of the WRC Board of Directors, works closely with these organizations to ensure that products licensed by the University are made by workers who are fairly treated and compensated.

Read the full story at Syracuse University News.

Gearing Up for Fall Events, BFAS Departments to Host Job Fair July 9 and 10

Director of Food Services Sue Bracy knows what August and September have in store for Syracuse University staff, and she knows that the time to prepare is now.

The return of major in-person campus events and the expected return to full capacity at the stadium means that her department will also need to return to full staffing levels. They’ll be called on to provide catering, concessions and daily dining services to the entire University community. After 15 months of public health restrictions and during a nationwide labor crunch, Bracy recognized that it would be a challenge to hire the approximately 300 full-time, part-time and temporary workers her department needs, and that’s how the idea of hosting a job fair came about.

Read the full story at Syracuse University News.

Parking and Transportation Services to Manage Safety Escort Shuttle Services Beginning July 1

Effective July 1, Parking and Transportation Services staff and drivers will assume responsibility and oversight of the University’s Safety Escort Shuttle Services program. The change is in response to recommendations provided to the University by Loretta Lynch in her comprehensive review of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), completed earlier this year. Among the 23 recommendations provided by Lynch and her team was a suggestion to remove the safety escort shuttle program from the portfolio of services offered by DPS.

Read the full story at Syracuse University News.

Kinchen to Join Auxiliary Services Team as Executive Director, Housing and Lodging

Vernetta Kinchen will begin her tenure as Syracuse University’s Executive Director for Housing and Lodging on July 1, Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Kris Klinger announced today. The new position was created to oversee the Housing, Meal Plan, and I.D. Card Services Office, along with the Syracuse University Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center and the Minnowbrook Conference Center, located in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y.

“I am excited to welcome Vernetta Kinchen to Syracuse University Auxiliary Services,” said Klinger. “With success in both the higher education and lodging spaces, Vernetta brings a wealth of diverse knowledge and experience to our team.”

Following a long career in the hotel and hospitality industry, including stints with Marriott and Wyndham hotel properties, Kinchen became the Associate Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in June 2013. Her time at Cornell also included work as a talent and retention specialist and in September 2020, she was appointed to oversee Cornell’s COVID-19 testing operations.

In her new role in Auxiliary Services, Kinchen will be asked to assist with the planning and implementation of the University’s housing strategy and to create and execute strategies for lodging, events, and conference services, with a focus on providing excellent customer service to the University’s many stakeholders.

“It is an honor to be joining and leading a team with so much talent,” said Kinchen. “I look forward to partnering with campus leadership to elevate the quality of services offered to the Syracuse community.”

Tewksbury to Retire After 40 Years at Syracuse University

Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Kris Klinger announced today that Mark Tewksbury, director of residence hall dining and Dome operations for Food Services, will retire from Syracuse University, effective July 31.

Tewksbury has been a fixture at Syracuse since he stepped onto campus in 1980 as a first-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences. He has worked for Food Services for 40 years, beginning his very first semester on campus as a student employee in Brockway Dining Center.

“Mark has dedicated four decades of his life to serving the students, staff, faculty and visitors of his beloved alma mater,” said Klinger. “His willingness to do whatever it takes enhanced and impacted countless student experiences for generations. Mark Tewksbury embodies what it means to be Orange.”

Tewksbury was in the crowd at the first-ever football game at the new Carrier Dome, never expecting that in just a few years, he would be running the stadium’s concessions operations for the better part of his professional career.

He worked his way up through the ranks at Food Services – he was a student supervisor at Brockway, the student coordinator for all dining centers, and then took a job at campus catering after he graduated. After a year, he was assigned to catering operations at the Dome. After a short time away – he opened the Goldstein Student Center in 1990 – he was back to the Dome, where he’s been ever since.

His wildest Dome memory? A Rolling Stones concert, their 1989 “Steel Wheels” tour. Tewksbury was at home mowing his lawn when the University’s concessions manager peeled into his driveway. Another Dome manager was in the hospital, and in a time before cell phones, the quickest way to recruit Tewksbury to step into a managerial role on the night of concert was to drive to his house and tell him to get into the car. There were 40,000 people in the Dome that night.

“When I arrived in the kitchen, the wall was covered in function sheets [catering order forms]. I had never seen one before,” said Tewksbury. “I just had to jump in and figure it out.”

He’s been witness to decades of University history: historic concerts, games, triumphs, and community tragedies. After the Labor Day storm of 1998, the University’s facilities still had power, unlike tens of thousands of homes in nearby neighborhoods and the greater Central New York area. Then-Chancellor Shaw opened the University’s Food Services facilities to the entire community, instructing the staff to “feed everyone who came through the doors.” Tewksbury recalls pitching in and being told “Just cook something!” by the manager of the dining center. They would feed two or three thousand people at Shaw Dining Center each night until the area recovered, and power was restored. Tewksbury remembers feeling an incredible sense of pride at how the staff managed to make their way to campus and offered to help any way they could.

He experienced the same emotions in 2020. Once the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic took hold on campus, Mark and the Food Services team, essential workers all, were still preparing food and serving students every day, even as the campus emptied. He says it was one of the toughest years of his career.

“Those first few months were just – how do we keep our people safe? How do we keep them from getting sick? Our crew was expected to be here every day, and they just stepped up,” said Tewksbury.

As usual, Mark himself went above and beyond to meet the needs of students. He gave out his personal cell phone number to students entering quarantine or isolation in on-campus housing. They texted him at all hours of the day and night with their requests and meal orders. He and his team worked seven days a week to deliver meals and supplies, to ensure that a scary experience was not made more so by adding food uncertainty to the mix.

Looking Forward to Retirement

Syracuse University has had a profound effect on his personal life as well. Tewksbury met his future wife in his freshman year – she was a concessions student manager in the Food Services department. Their daughter is also an alumna of the University.

Though he will miss his daily interactions with students and the many colleagues he’s befriended over the years, Mark will look forward to spending his retirement with his family – his son in Syracuse, his daughter in Boulder, Co., and his mom in Boston. He also hopes to finally enjoy some time on his boat.

He’ll be greatly missed by his colleagues. His co-director, Sue Bracy, knows how difficult it will be to find someone else who cares as deeply about the University and its students.

“I love working with Mark,” said Bracy. “He is honest, kind, and hard-working. He came here in 1980 as a student and is leaving here forty years later as a respected colleague and friend.”