I would like to take this opportunity to respond to the article in the Messenger this week. We are obligated to have jobs open on campus for work-study (we are the largest employer on campus) and the first two weeks of any semester are normally hard getting staff started and trained. This past summer we hired more high school students and full time staff to cover the shifts. We found we had a hard time last year filling these spots and this would help us with the initial large numbers anticipated. We looked at our schedules and felt that opening up we would be prepared for what was coming. We did not anticipate the large number of students coming to meals all at the same time. We based our opening of the academic year on last year and what we knew about the trends from that plus what we encountered with the opening here last November. Last year in the old building we limited entrees to one, which speeded up service. In Stav Hall we let you take two or more at a time. Many students take more than one entrée and wait in each line, which takes longer.

Last year when we moved over here we realized that we had to make sure the dishroom belt went around and was almost empty when it reached the front to keep the line moving. I personally, along with other members of the management team, worked in the dishroom the first few weeks to make that happen. We succeeded a majority of the time but there were times we didn't quite make it. After the first week we started to call temporary agencies and other groups we know of in the area to help us with staff since students with work-study were not applying for jobs. (Over the summer we sent a flyer to all first-year students telling them about the fact that we have work-study and non work-study jobs available. You do not have to have work-study to work for us, we currently have non-work study students on Bon Appetit payroll.)

To help the line on the dish room move faster students have to realize that they can put trays in four or five people at a time. I have noticed many times that each student will wait till they get to the dishroom window and only one student at a time puts their tray in. The gentlemen at the dish room have been directing students to move forward but that doesn't always happen.

I am also giving you some quarter hourly reports to look at for this past Wednesday and Thursday to see how many students come at a particular time. On Wednesday lunch for example we had 625 students come through the checkers station from 11:45 to 12:30. That is one student every 4.32 seconds. On Thursday lunch we had 509 students go through the checkers station from 11:00 to 11:30. That is one student every 3.53 seconds. Being open until 3:00 PM wouldn't solve this problem because students would still come at the same times because of the class schedules.

Dinner is totally different. On Wednesday we fed only 633 students from 4:30 to 5:30. The next hour, 996 students came. Thursday was a calmer night for dinner because we had 100 students with pack-outs.

If we are acting like the Gestapo it is to keep tables open for the next group of students coming into the dining room. One of the first nights we were open after classes started we had long lines at the dish room late. At the end we had over half the dining room covered with trays. This was one night that two managers were in the dish room to keep the line moving. The entire staff stayed and it took till after 9:00 PM to clean that up. In the past week students have cursed at staff, both at the checkers station and at the dish room area. A student physically pushed Walter, the gentleman at the dish room. In this day it is hard enough to find staff let alone keep staff. Many have come to me and want to quit because of the abuse they take from some students.

If you think we don't care, we do. We have constantly been looking at ways we can speed service and keep the dish room moving. All the managers at one time or another have served or worked in the dish room the last few weeks. I thank you for the comments but I also wanted to share our side of the story.