UK finalizing agreement with Compass Group for food services and more
A statue of "Bowman" on the University of Kentucky is located near the Avenue of Champions opposite Memorial Coliseum. The Patterson Office Tower is in the background. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
The University of Kentucky is finalizing an enterprise services partnership with Compass Group after signaling it plans to end its contract with Aramark Campus.
A UK press release said Compass will begin its operations for dining and concessions with the university on July 1. The partnership will also include services like maintenance, grounds, custodial, in-patient transport and in-patient sitters.
The partnership “is designed to improve coordination and long‑term planning across UK, UK HealthCare, UK King’s Daughters and UK St. Claire, while preserving university oversight and employee commitments,” the press release said.
Federal notices filed with the state government earlier this year showed 926 food service workers faced layoffs. The university’s press released all current employees will continue to have a job at UK and keep their current pay and benefits. Compass is also expected to provide access to expanded training, development, apprenticeships and more opportunities for employees.
UK President Eli Capilouto said in a statement that the new partnership “represents the next phase of how we support our growing, more complex university — and how we do so thoughtfully with our people and our purpose at the center of what we do.”
“Just as we have reimagined housing, research and health care to meet the needs of today and tomorrow, this partnership is about building strong, coordinated services that can meet and sustain the demand of excellence across the entire UK enterprise,” Capilouto said.
Palmer Brown, CEO of Compass Group North America, said that the collaboration “represents one of the most comprehensive and forward-looking service partnerships in higher education and health care today — focused not only on operational excellence, but also on hospitality, innovation and meaningful impact across the communities UK serves.”
Eric Monday, UK’s executive vice president for finance and administration and co-executive vice president for health affairs, said such partnerships “allow us to focus more fully on our core mission of teaching, research, service and patient care to ultimately advance Kentucky in all that we do.”