Eastern dining services offers new scholarships

This archived article was written by: Josie Sue Slade

You may have noticed USU Eastern’s dining services employees going throughout campus and changing the vending machines last week. At the direction of Gillian Mills-Bishop, director of dining services, USUE’s vending machines are now controlled directly by dining services rather than a third party.
So what does that mean for Eastern’s campus? It simply means that more money will be put back into the school’s budget. Dining services is accomplishing this by not only creating new employment options on campus for students, but by putting money earned into a scholarship dubbed, “Quality of Life Scholarship.”
The idea came when dining services evaluated the eating options on campus and how effective they are. The goal of the scholarship is to help students afford and receive meal plans they want. The scholarship will start with a $20,000 fund.
Mills-Bishop said, “I feel that our role is provide the most engaging and opportunity-filled experience for students at USU Eastern.
By generating a scholarship for meal plans it helps students get the meal plans they want and not only what they can afford. To give back to the students is also exciting and it means students now are helping the future students that will come after them.”
The students eligible for this scholarship must be living in Burtenshaw Residence Hall. The awards include $100 given each semester. Mills-Bishop said, “The future for this fund is exciting because we will stretch ourselves in dining services to come up with new ways to support current and future students choosing to study at USUE.”
With a plan ready, the scholarship will be available to students as early as Fall 2015. While there are still kinks that need to be worked out, the process is being finalized and more information on the application process will be available to students soon.
Now you can feel less guilty about the money you spend on candy and soda from the vending machines. The next time you feel like a drink or a snack, remember that any profit from the vending machines go to this fund.