Dartmouth Dining Services announced its new Fall term hours of operation on Wednesday and is expected to make decisions on employee layoffs later today.
In a Student Assembly-sponsored referendum last spring, 1,965 of 2,700 students voted to cut services rather than pay for a mandatory $800-per-term meal plan.
A Dartmouth Dining Services ad hoc committee, which convened after the referendum and met throughout the summer, conceived the new hours.
Under the new plan, Food Court will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. but will close from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. each day, according to a press release from the committee. Food Court will no longer serve breakfast, but some of its more popular items like omelettes will be moved into the Collis Cafe, according to Assistant Director of Dining Services Tucker Rossiter.
Collis Cafe will retain its regular dining hours, but will now be closed on the weekends, according to the release. Weekend hours at the Cafe did not fare well in the referendum.
The Courtyard Cafe in the Hopkins Center will continue to operate seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., the release stated. In addition, a limited menu will be available until 10 p.m. on nights the Hop holds programming events.
Westside Buffet, which did not receive a large amount of student support in the referendum, will discontinue lunch service, according to the release. Dinner will be served from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday nights.
More extensive changes will be implemented at Topside Convenience Center. It will keep its hours of operation from 11 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. But Topside will significantly expand its hours to remain open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights as well as during reading period and exams.
In addition, Topside will now be equipped with microwaves and self-serve and pre-prepared foods.
Lone Pine Tavern will now offer only a limited menu on Wednesday and Thursday nights during its programming events. The tavern will still serve a full menu on Friday and Saturday nights.
Rossiter said the ad hoc committee worked to analyze the financial health of each dining area and how many people were using the facilities before determining the new proposed hours. The referendum was helpful in letting the committee ascertain student support for each venue, he said.
The committee tried not only to streamline the dining services program, but also to enhance the quality of the program, Rossiter said.
Rachel Bogardus '98, a member of the committee, said the committee members considered not only the results of the student referendum, but also financial information that DDS provided them. This information largely supported the opinions students gave in the referendum, she said.
Bogardus said facilities like the Dartmouth Skiway Concessions and Cafe North at the Medical School are minor facilities compared to all DDS operations, which is why they remain untouched, despite faring poorly in the referendum.
The committee was able to find ways to make those facilities break even or make a profit without serious changes, she said.
Bogardus said the committee was faced with difficult decisions knowing that DDS employees' jobs were on the line, but the group felt they explored all of their options thoroughly.
From the initial meeting, the committee knew labor was going to be the area of largest cuts for DDS, Bogardus said. Labor is the largest cost of operating DDS, she said.
Rossiter said employees would have to be laid off from all levels of Dining Services. The final decision on which employees will be let go should come later this afternoon, Rossiter said, and will be based mainly on seniority.
Those employees who were already planning not to return to DDS for unrelated reasons will be considered in the decision to try to minimize the number of workers who will have to be laid off, Rossiter said.
Student jobs will be affected by the reduced hours of DDS too, although Rossiter said Dining Services will attempt to minimize the effect on student workers.
He said he also hoped some of the employees who had to be laid off would be able to find temporary work in other areas at the College or could be re-hired by DDS sometime in the future when jobs become available.
The Dartmouth Dining Services Ad Hoc Committee is comprised of co-chairs Rossiter and Bogardus, S.A. Representatives Thomas Adair '99 and Jessica Meed '00, S.A. Vice President Nahoko Kawakyu '99, Social Life Task Force member Norma Andrade '99, Dining Services intern Case Dorkey '99, Collis Governing Board member Sarah Kimberly '99, Dean's Office Executive Officer Richard Heck, College Nutritionist Marcia Herrin, Collis Center Director Mark Hoffman and Associate Treasurer Win Johnson.
