As of late there has been a swarm of controversy surrounding our cafeteria. The typical talk about last night¹s raunchy tacos has been replaced by more serious issues such as harassment of workers and shouting matches between angry students and staff members.

Each year, students are faced with long lines and crowds during the first few weeks of school. According to managers of Bon Appetit, this is due to the fact that the incoming first year students usually come and eat together at first, creating a mob-like atmosphere. Also, it takes a while for people to figure out their schedules and when the best time to eat is.

However, this year the lines haven¹t started to diminished by October as they have in years past. Bon Appetit believes that this is due to that fact that this is the first year that Stav Hall has been open from the start of the school year. "Last year when the new dinning hall opened in November, students were used to the old policy of one entrée per meal so not many of them got more than one entrée at a time," stated Bon Appetit general manager Marietta Lamarre-Buck. This year the cafeteria estimates that many more people are taking more than one entrée. Since people are getting more than one entrée, they¹re standing in more than one line, causing the huge traffic jams around peak eating times.

These long lines have been the cause of much of the anger and frustration displayed by many students. Some students are choosing to take the anger out on the cafeteria workers themselves. One student was reported telling a student worker that they didn¹t belong at St. Olaf, because of their need for work study.

Other students take an even more aggressive approach. One unidentified student actually pushed one of the cafeteria workers on his way out of the cafeteria. "We don¹t know who it was, but we wish we did, because it could¹ve been brought to the dean of students. That¹s really a form of assault," stated Steve Wisniewski of Bon Appetit. The harassed worker almost quit but is now back on the job.

After realizing the severity of the problem, several meetings were held to deal with the situation. One was a forum held last Wednesday October 4, in which students were able to voice their opinions to Bon Appetit staff. "Although there was constructive criticism given, only five students showed up. We would like to see more students show up in the future," Wisniewski said. To make future forums better attended Bon Appetit plans to schedule them in individual dorms and have them better publicized.

Another way the staff of Bon Appetit is trying to solve the problem is to hire more staff. However, because of the increased harassment, numerous workers have quit, and the cafeteria is finding it difficult to replace them. This is due to the fact that student workers have a hard time committing to more than a few hours a week which makes training difficult. They have advertised for full time help in several of the surrounding area papers, but the responses are limited because of the lack of people who want to commute to Northfield from the Twin Cities.

When asked about the possibility of staying open longer hours to aide the congestion, Bon Appetit managers say it simply wouldn¹t help. "We¹ve tried it in the past, and the majority of the people still came at the same times," said Wisniewski. Through the recent efforts, the cafeteria hopes the current chaos will soon be eased. Wisniewski says the most important thing he wants people to realize is that "It should never be a you against us situation, we¹re a food service company here to serve the staff and students. We try to accommodate our clientele as best as we possibly can. Our door is always open."