CDS overcrowding a problem for students, staff

Skyrocketing attendance in the dining halls this year has led to widespread inconvenience of students, staff and dining hall employees.

Director of Campus Dining Services (CDS) Dave Jensen attributes the increased student turnout to a combination of factors, including the general chaos of the first weeks of the school year, understaffing of employees in the dining halls, overenrollment of the entering class and the delay in the arrival of permanent validines.

"Attendance is up for sure, but it always is in the first weeks of school. It seems like everyone is hitting the dining halls at once instead of at staggered times," Jensen said.

Students, however, are not looking for excuses to justify the long lines they wait in at every meal.

"I waited 25 minutes for a friggin' quesadilla. I feel like it's ridiculous that we're waiting for food we've already paid for," college sophomore Jesse Lanz said.

Part of the problem is that CDS has not filled all of its 270 dining hall employee positions, according to Jensen. "During breakfast and dinner we're between 90 and 95 percent staffed. Lunchtime, we're lucky to be 25 percent student-staffed-it's a hard time for students to give up to work. With temporary workers, we're still only 65 percent staffed," he said.

Lunch, however, is not the only meal that's difficult for staff to handle. "It gets a little hectic-you're always running up and down the stairs getting things because there's nobody else to do it," first-year CDS dinnertime employee Amy Moyer said.

The large first-year class has also contributed to crowding in the dining halls. While CDS had approximately 900 students on board last year, the number has now climbed to 1000. With Dascomb now closed from Friday night dinner to breakfast Monday morning, this has meant larger crowds congregating in Stevenson.

"With two buildings open, we've had some staffing difficulties. Stevenson can just as easily feed everyone," Jensen said. "Now that Wilder dinner and fourth meal have started, it's getting less crowded in the dining halls. The counts should be lower for Stevenson this Friday night."

The long delay in printing new student validines may also be adding to the CDS crowds.

"We knew when we walked into this that there would be some growing pains, but we needed to look at the benefits of switching to new technology. The new system so far exceeds the old one that it's definitely the right thing to do. The question is, how long will it take to make the change," Jensen said.

The temporary validines distributed to all students do not distinguish between co-opers, who are only allowed one board meal a week, and board students. The result, according to many co-opers, is that they eat in the dining halls more than they're supposed to. Jensen would not comment on the possibility of these students eventually being fined for the extra meals they've eaten.

Residential Life and Services hope to distribute permanent validines to students by the week of September 22, according to Jensen. The process has been slow, however, since some students still have not gotten their pictures taken and upper-class validines have yet to be printed.

Flyers will be mailed Monday reminding students they have one week left to get their picture taken.

"Once the pictures are in, we're estimating it will take 40 hours of nonstop printing until we finish the cards. When that's done, they can be given to students," Jensen said. "I think people will get their routines down within the next week and things will finally settle down."