Mayer relies on business structures, such as committees, broad-based surveys and consultants to get feedback from students and staff.

In contrast, Berry used consultants sparingly--mainly for design issues--and preferred to lead initiatives himself, especially staff motivation.

"Their personalities are 180 degrees different," Zeckhauser says. " Ted is much more low key, but knows food equally as well. He has been deliberate in his goals and with performance management."

Is Change Hard?

Before he left Harvard for Disney, Berry's accomplishments included revamping the menu, instituting salad and sandwich bars, inventing "festive meals" and creating retail branches including the popular Science Center Greenhouse.

When Mayer took the job in June 1997, after HUDS' first pick turned the position down, he says HUDS lacked consistency.

"I came in when everything was wonderful, yet still things had to continue to change," Mayer says.

Under Mayer's administration, HUDS has developed the "fly by" lunch program, instituted a wide-scale facilities renovation project and plans to add an extra "brain break" snack to the undergraduate meal plan next year.

Mayer says that the changes he has implemented are difficult because they necessitate deeper reorganizations in staff work habits.

"It takes a lot for people to change their modus operandi," Mayer says.

"When Ted [Mayer] came aboard, the work that we needed to do in dining services was harder work, much harder in the sense that it was very process oriented," says Executive Chef Miller, who has worked under both Berry and Mayer. "We had done a lot of positive things with customer service levels, but we needed to address some food quality issues and some renovation issues and really sit down and develop a long-term process and plan for dining services."

But Childs says that the difficulty of change alone can't explain Mayer's high turnover. "There were no more changes than under Mr. Berry," he says.

It may just come down to personality differences.

While Mayer has focused on increased accountability, Berry relied on motivational support to bolster employees.

"Accountability came across in another way. I inspire people to be all they can be," Berry says. "They had to work a little harder, but you get out of life what you put in it and they got it."

Perhaps time, too, makes a difference. "Mike [Berry] is gone," says Master of Quincy House Michael Shinagel. "It's always easier to idealize the past and demonize the present."