Aaron Terrazas/The Hoya Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., Dining Hall is one of the many areas on campus for which Mariott provides services.

Enter Leo’s any weekday evening and encounter the frenzied feeding of hundreds of students munching on chicken fingers and lining up for the salad and dessert bars. Behind the cutlery and frozen yogurt sits one of the world’s largest multinational corporations.

Marriott International, the same corporation responsible for the chain of worldwide hotels that bears its name, has provided food services to students at Georgetown University since the mid-1970s.

Today, the company not only manages the two principal student dining halls, O’Donovan and Darnall, but also the University Conference Center, The Center Grill and Hoya Court in the Leavey Center. For the Jesuit Community, Marriott provides food and housekeeping services.

And because of recent restructuring, Georgetown is the company’s only university client – making the relationship a unique enterprise.

When Georgetown first contracted Marriott to provide food services nearly three decades ago, the corporation listed hundreds of universities among its clients. In 1998 that changed when arriott International sold its management service division to the French company Sodexho. Georgetown was the only university to maintain a contract with Marriott.

Marriott and Georgetown decided to continue their professional relationship after the corporation sold its principal food service sector because the services that Marriott provided to the university extended beyond only food service.

“We’re kind of a hybrid when it comes to food service, something special,” said Margie Bryant, the associate vice president for auxiliary services who manages the university’s contract with Marriott. “The cool part is that we are their only account so they don’t look at it in traditional terms or pre-set procedures.”

Julie Bataille, university spokeswoman, described the relationship further. “Georgetown University owns the buildings and contracts with Marriott to provide all of these services given their business expertise in these areas. The arrangement is similar to those at many other schools who use vendors with expertise in food services and hotel management to provide these kinds of services for their campus communities.”

The approximately 325 food service and housekeeping workers on campus that manage the Marriott-run facilities are considered employees of both the corporation and the university. “Their paychecks come from Marriott but each employee realizes that they provide a service for the university,” Bryant said. “If they do something wrong, they understand they could jeopardize the contract.”

Work-study student employees are rare among their ranks, although some are hired occasionally. Bryant said that few work-study applications are received for such positions.

Georgetown pays a confidential annual fee to the corporation for all their services. But Bryant assured “Georgetown works very hard to keep all contracts very competitive.” All fees collected from students for meal plans and food is collected by the university and any amount collected over the fee charged by arriott is used by the Office of Auxiliary Services for special events around campus.

Menus for the dining halls are developed by Marriott International and later influenced and adjusted by the desires of the Office of Auxiliary Services and the Student Food Committee. ilkshake machines and Grab-n-Go lunches have both been recent suggestions of the Student Advisory Committee.

Bryant said that she eats in the student dining halls daily for more than the obvious reason of quality control.

“I like it,” she said. “I’m spoiled. It’s easy and it’s convenient and yes, I do help out when they need it.”

Excess food from each meal that students do not consume is not reused in subsequent days, contrary to urban legend. Instead, it is sent to local charitable organizations such as the Washington, D.C., Central Kitchen and the group So Others May Eat. Marriott also contributes to various campus events throughout the year.

While Bryant is in contact with Marriott employees on a daily basis, she only meets with administrators from the company’s corporate headquarters a couple of times a semester. “If everything is going well in any good contract, there’s no need to meet frequently,” she said.