OU Baker Center Digging Out

Ohio University’s Baker University Center has successfully reduced operating losses by cutting hours and staff, revamping its menu and completing a permanent storage space that eliminated the need to rent a storage trailer, reports the school’s The Post campus paper. Baker, which includes the West 82 food court, Bobcat Essentials retail shop, Front Room coffee shop and Latitude 39 restaurant, now projects a $176,766 budget deficit this year, a steep decrease from the $2,307,750 the center lost since its opening in January 2007.

Among the strategies employed to reduce losses were the introduction of combo meals along with smaller portions and lower prices in the food court, as well as the discontinuing of a dining dollars program that artificially pumped up top-line revenues but hurt profitability.