AUB's Main Cafeteria is one of the best illustrations of how and why the University runs a yearly deficit.  The cafeteria issue has been under debate for a while now.  Azmi Imad, the Director of Risk Management, was called to answer some questions before the University Student Faculty Committee.  In that meeting, Imad stated that the cafeteria has become a money drain.  Ever since that meeting, some USFC students have been asking Outlook for any available information that might be brought to the administration's attention.
   As a matter of fact, Outlook does not have documents, at least it has them but cannot use them since our source requested that our conversation remain off the record and so they shall remain.  But one would not need  a long period of time, even without the use of any official documents, before he/she figured out why it is that the cafeteria is running a yearly deficit.
   First, the cafeteria's architecture and decor are far from attracting the attention of student and faculty customers. Has anyone noticed that the only space which overlooks the Mediterranean in the cafeteria is the toilet area?  If you are in the toilets, you can see as far as Latakia.  Ironically, if you are taking a meal inside, you can barely figure out whether it's day or night.  Located between the University's Bliss Street high fence and its own rest room area, the Cafeteria's dim light makes it look like the Nazi Auschwitz concentration camp.
   Our first tip to the Cafeteria management would be the following: relocate the toilets.  The University's capital budget is able to fund such a minor project while the Pink House, the Provost's residence, and other buildings could wait if need be.  With a well-illuminated cafeteria overlooking the beauty of the Mediterranean, competing food places at Bliss Street would have to rethink their marketing strategies.
   Second, the cafeteria cannot solve the administration-syndicate problem.  Departments which are overstaffed usually revert to the "move-in" solution.  Under the terms of "move-in," the extra workers and/or employees are moved from an overstaffed department to an understaffed one.  In this respect, the Cafeteria is playing the role of the scapegoat department.  Just sit for a couple of hours and observe how many workers the cafeteria has.  The Cafeteria has to pay for workers that it does not need.  In other words, the Cafeteria's losses do not represent its own expenses.  They represent the cost of an inadequate worker-administration policy.
   Consequently, the Cafeteria will always run a deficit as long as the number of workers it employs is dictated from above.  Should the Cafeteria be given the freedom to select its own team, then one could go to its management, say to Ghassan Madi, and hold him responsible of the said deficit.
   Third, the Cafeteria could win some extra money from corporate sponsorship.  Any shop on Bliss Street would die to have a small selling space inside AUB's Main Cafeteria.  Yet, the administration has to beware of monopoly.  If there's no book agent in town but Malik Barakat, who can monopolize book prices, there is certainly a Burger King for every MacDonald's and a House of Donuts for every Dunkin' Donuts.  Thus, in cases of no oligopoly--which is highly improbable in such a small market--competition would be in the interest of student customers.
  Fourth, the Cafeteria might want to try some customer-attraction tricks.  For instance, the Cafeteria might invent new incomprehensible food names, might announce itself as the winner of the Northern Milwaukee Award for the Best University Cafeteria Food.  Has anyone noticed the popular Euro Deli snack shop on Bliss Street? It has branches in Montreal, Tokyo, and Beirut.  Why is it called "Euro" Deli then, when it does not have any branch in Europe?
   Fifth, instead of subsidizing the Cafeteria's losses and waiting for its coming yearly deficit, try to invest in its equipment.  The place for the Cafeteria's plates and utensils is the AUB Museum not its Cafeteria.  Try to purchase new equipment or to change the packaging style.  A place in Bourj Abi Haydar, called Farrouj Shmaitelly-- which is, God knows how, making a profit--serves you in a package bearing the shop's logo and name.  The AUB Cafeteria needs more publicity than a terrible old banner reading "Our (Your) Cafeteria," trying to convince students that this is the AUB's official dining place.
   The above problems and their suggested solutions do not require that much of an investment.  They are simple solutions that might cut down the Cafeteria's losses once and for all.