The debate over the removal of trays in Prospect Dining Hall is stronger than ever. Some students are still uncomfortable with the decision to remove the trays, while others have warmed up to the idea.
The Student Senate hosted an open forum for students to drop by and discuss their specific view on the trayless issue. A small number of attendees, mostly senators added insight to the issue at hand. Student Body President Trevor Chandler unveiled his stance on the issue. “I personally think it’s a sad world when we can’t walk twenty feet to get more food,” Chandler said.
Chandler related going trayless as keeping in step with the University’s effort to be both energy and financially stable. “We are saving thirty thousand dollars,” Chandler said about going trayless. The saved costs come from the declining amount of disposed of food, labor costs, and utilities costs.
Chandler also pointed out that the impact of lack of trays would be lost on incoming classes.
“I really think this is a positive thing for environmental change, and I think when the freshman come in, they will think, ‘hey, this isn’t such a bad thing,'” Chandler said.
Student Senator Dustin Siggins also spoke in favor of the trayless policy. “This is a business. We can choose whether or not we want to eat in the dining hall,” Siggins said. He later spoke of the amount of money Sodexho is saving by going trayless and how it is worth the extra effort by students.
Senator Jon O’Neill, a staunch opponent to the trayless policy felt differently, “It shouldn’t be something that Sodexho makes us do. It shouldn’t be something Res Life makes us do. It shouldn’t be any of their business to tell us how to run our life, and it shouldn’t be any of their business to lower our living standard,” O’Neil said. O’Neil has often poised himself as an advocate of personal responsibility and choice.
“It is a reduction of our living standard where they are telling us we are spending more time because they put the environment ahead of doing something for the students,” O’Neil added, “There are far more useful things the school could save money on.”O’Neil shared his concern that the school may try to limit other choices students have in the dining hall.
“I think we should be able to have a choice for people who want to have trays and people who don’t want to have trays,” O’Neil said, “I think in some respects, we are losing some of our freedom when someone tells us we can’t have a tray,” he added. Chris Mongeon, the General Manager at Sodexho defended the school’s decision to go trayless.
“When the administration was looking into this [going trayless] it seemed to be following the direction we wanted the school to be going in, the savings based on the first six weeks will be well over $100,000,” Mongeon said.
Mongeon than went on to explain where the savings were coming from. The most savings are coming from food costs. “There are people who used to work in the dish room who had to clean 800 trays,” Mongeon said.
Students would often get a lot of food merely because they had the space for it on their tray, eat only a small amount and then throw the rest out. Since it is nearly impossible to do this without trays, Sodexho has seen an increase in monetary savings.
“We are literally saving $2,000 per week in food costs,” Mongeon said. While the initial response for the trayless policy was negative, as new information becomes available, more students seem to be in favor of going trayless.
“Overall, this is something that makes sense,” Chandler said. It seems as if this change has been completely adopted by Prospect Dining Hall. The “tray return sign” was recently changed to “dish return, ” signifying the end of the tray era for Prospect.