Complaints of the summer heat have been common across campus this term, but few students can attest to the heat wave experienced by Dartmouth Dining Services employees. For grill workers and other employees who wear green-collared shirts and stand six hours at a time, the summer is particularly burdensome.
"The worst part of the job is the heat," Courtyard Cafe cook Sheila Blandin said. With the exception of Novack Cafe, none of Dartmouth's on-campus food service facilities are air conditioned.
All non-student DDS employees, with the exception of Collis Cafe workers, belong to the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union. Aware of the hot conditions, local president Earl Sweet said that the union has taken steps to improve its members' labor practices.
Thayer Dining Hall, where the bulk of the DDS staff is employed, is particularly troublesome, Sweet said. College officials said that the antiquated building is slated for demolition but have not announced a specific time frame or plans for a new campus dining facility.
Sweet said he has "a good understanding" of the situation and has the cooperation of the College.
"[They don't] fight me too much," Sweet said.
At this juncture, Sweet said that labor relations within DDS are good. He said his recent work representing College employees has been on behalf of laborers working on campus construction sites.
DDS Director Tucker Rossiter said he has promised his employees air conditioning in the future. According to Rossiter, plans for new dining areas, such as the dining facility planned for the McLaughlin residential cluster, will include air conditioning.
Rossiter also said there are plans to install air conditioning in future renovations of Thayer Hall.
According to Sweet, however, Thayer's current layout prevents the installation of an air conditioner. The union has instead worked to ensure that employees have access to fans and extra breaks during hot weather.
Many DDS employees acknowledge that the summer heat is hard on them, but that the perks of the job outweigh the high temperatures.
University of New Hampshire student Laura Hodgedon, a native of Lebanon, N.H., has worked six summers for DDS. Though she said that conditions in the Food Court dining facility can be "horrendous," with temperatures of "over a hundred degrees behind the grill," she noted that DDS offered the highest pay of any job she could find in the Upper Valley.
Employees of Courtyard Cafe echoed Hodgedon's sentiment.
"Working for Dartmouth is great," Souleymane Marzouk said, citing good pay, "awesome" health benefits and the opportunity to take a class each term for credit.
Though Marzouk has not yet taken a class, he said he hopes to in the future as he pursues a nursing degree.
Marzouk and Blandin both assert that interacting with students is the best part of the job.
"Ninety-eight percent of students treat us with respect," Marzouk said.
Both employees said they enjoy working because they see many of the same people every day and get to know students over the course of the years.
"As long as we keep sight of what's important -- the students -- it will be fine," Marzouk said.
