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Paul had successfully lobbied UD administrators to build a “student restaurant” for hands on food and beverage service, founded as Vita Nova and knew the next logical step was a hotel. The hotel had to satisfy several key requirements to be built. First, it is had to be financially feasible, second it had to serve the needs of the larger community of the University of Delaware, the city of Newark and complement existing hotels in the community, and third it had to provide the “real world” learning environment that would be vital to the unique education that Paul envisioned for UD HRIM students.
After several early studies failed to provide a convincing financial case, a study conducted in late 1999 showed that demand has grown to the point where a hotel could be justified. It was decided by President David Roselle and UD Board of Trustees to locate the hotel on a tract of UD land on the Laird Campus, adjacent to the Clayton Hall Conference Center to help provide guest room accommodations to guests of the Conference Center.
The stage was set, and a partnership was developed with Shaner Hotel group of State College Pa and Marriott International to build and operate a 126-room Marriott Courtyard Hotel on that site. The hotel opened on November 15, 2004 with Managing Director Bill Sullivan at the helm. Bill had joined Shaner in July of 2004 and assembled the opening leadership team. Bill had previously managed the Hotel du Pont and related hospitality operations for DuPont and was also an adjunct faculty member in the HRIM program for many years.
The plan for hospitality education was called the Lodging Practicum was developed by HRIM leadership, and became part of a planned semester for HRIM juniors called the Lodging Module. This was unique in hospitality education since it fully integrated 50 students per semester in all aspects of the hotel operation for the semester in the “experiential learning” at the hotel, where they spend 140 hours working closely with hotel staff.
Learning every job in the hotel, from guest room housekeeper to general manager. At the same time, the students would take four lodging related academic classes in a classroom located in the hotel. No other hospitality education program had ever attempted this level of immersion in an operating hotel, and its success has generated many calls and visits by other hospitality programs as they try to learn from the success at UD. As of fall 2014, more than 1,000 students have completed the Lodging Module at the Courtyard. The hotel has been a great financial and guest service success, winning service excellence awards from Marriott for each of its ten years of operation, and in 2008 was rated the second best Courtyard for guest service in the world. Hotel and Conference Center leadership rapidly engaged with other Newark area hotels to form the “Destination Newark Hotel Partnership” to encourage group travel and sports events for Newark to develop new sources of “city wide” business for the Newark area hotels, and local shops and restaurants. Later taking a founding role in the formation of the Delaware Sports Commission.
Hotel leadership engaged as well with local charities and partnered with Delaware Autism, UD Center for Disabilities Studies and the Delaware School for Deaf to provide skill training, jobs and social integration for people with various disabilities. The hotel has received numerous community awards for leadership with tourism development, service to the disabled community and other non-profits.
The hotel plays an important role in UD, hosting many visitors to campus, and developed a very successful Very Important Parents (VIP) program for parents of over 5,500 UD students for lodging needs in Newark.
Marriott International has been a strong supporter of the hotel since its inception. Marriott provided initial funding for the Marriott Center for Hospitality and Tourism, the classroom located in the hotel and recently agreed to donate $560,000 for a new state of the art classroom addition to the hotel.
Marriott Chairman, J. Willard Marriott came to the grand opening of the Hotel on November 21, 2004 and came back again in October of 2013 to visit the hotel and address students of the UD Lerner College of Business and Economics (HRIM is a part of this college).
Having educated a decade of future hospitality leaders, the future is bright for the Hotel and the HRIM program. Recent renovations to the hotel and the Vita Nova restaurant clearly demonstrate the commitment by UD Administration to keep the UD hospitality program as one of the learning programs in the world, where excellence in academic and experiential learning come together to prepare future industry leaders.
Story courtesy of Courtyard by Marriott Newark-University of Delaware Hotel.
