NEW BRUNSWICK — After nearly two decades of living large in a campus parking lot, Rutgers University's infamous "grease trucks" may be forced to hit the road again as the school considers major changes to one of its most beloved icons.

The food trucks — known for the "Fat Darrell," "Fat Cat" and other gut-busting sandwiches — have been permanently parked in Lot 8 on the New Brunswick campus for years with the state university’s blessing.

But under a new proposal, Rutgers would require the trucks to leave campus overnight. University officials also want to put the coveted spaces in the lot up for public bid, raise the rent and require the trucks to collect and remove their own grease.

The proposed changes are part of a larger university probe into whether Rutgers’ long-standing grease truck arrangement is legal — or fair.

Rutgers officials stress they aren’t trying to kick out the trucks or rid the campus of the "Fat Elvis," "Fat Sam," "Fat KoKo" or the other deep-fried, calorie-laden sandwiches considered part of the fabric of the university.

"This is a huge cultural issue," said Jack Molenaar, director of transportation services at Rutgers. "We want to make this as transparent as possible so no one thinks big, bad Rutgers is trying to get rid of the grease trucks — because we’re not."

Still, the prospect of major changes has the grease truck owners nervous. Some have already consulted a lawyer.

"We’re willing to do anything to stay here," said Abdo Elfeiki, 53, co-owner of the RU Hungry truck. "It seems to us they’ve decided already — they want to get rid of us."

The grease trucks have been feeding Rutgers students since the 1960s, when vendors began parking along College Avenue. When New Brunswick banned the trucks from city streets in the early 1990s, Rutgers stepped in to offer the trucks a permanent place to park in a campus lot.

No one questioned the arrangement until last year, when representatives from PepsiCo noticed the grease trucks were selling Coke and other non-Pepsi products, Rutgers officials said. Under a long-standing contract, only Pepsi-brand soft drinks are supposed to be sold at Rutgers.

When campus officials began looking into the grease truck contracts to resolve the Pepsi issue, they began to notice other problems, said Molenaar, the Rutgers official who oversees the lot. There were, for example, no rules for allowing new trucks into the lot, including a Korean food truck, a health food vendor and a roasted corn truck that had requested spaces.

Rutgers was also losing money on the deal. Though the university collected $62,400 in rent from the five trucks last year, Rutgers had to come up with another $93,467 to provide security, electricity and grease collection, Molenaar said.

"As a public university, we shouldn’t be subsidizing (the trucks)," Molenaar said. "We want to break even."

A campus committee, made up of university officials and students, is considering changes to the rules. Under their proposal, the trucks would have to leave campus from 3 to 6 a.m. to quell any questions about whether the lot is a permanent food court, subject to stricter health and safety rules.

Rutgers also wants to put the spots up for public bid to eliminate any appearance the public university is giving special treatment to the privately-owned businesses. Student preferences for "fat sandwiches" or other types of food could be considered when awarding the contracts, Molenaar said.

The grease truck owners said they are a group of mostly Arab-American immigrants who formed a partnership over the years where they share partial ownership in each other’s trucks in a complex arrangement. Some said they are willing to pay higher rent, move their trucks at night and sell Pepsi if they can stay in the lot. But they do not want to risk losing their spots in a public bidding process.

"We still have hope that they’re not going to open to the market," said Samir Alkilani, 42, part owner of four trucks. "We are the people who established the grease trucks. Not the university."

Many Rutgers students are adamant the grease trucks should remain. Anthony Sandelli, 22, said his favorite sandwich is the "Fat Beach" (cheesesteak, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks and french fries on a roll) and removing the food trucks would be a "disgrace."

"This is their spot and nobody should be able to take that away from them," said Sandelli, a senior criminal justice major from Morristown.

Umberto Palazzo, a freshman engineering major, said he doesn’t buy the fat sandwiches because "they’re unhealthy and they don’t make you feel good after you eat them."

But, like many of his classmates, he doesn’t want to see the trucks disappear. "It would be weird," said Palazzo, 18, of Edgewater. "This is just the zone where the grease trucks dominate."

By Victoria St. Martin and Kelly Heyboer/The Star-Ledger