The Student Government Association (SGA) meeting heard from the Bon Appétit Management Company at its Jan. 31 meeting to discuss feedback on the dining hall. Already this semester, dining services has introduced earlier dining hall hours on the weekends and given off-campus students 10 meal swipes.
Many students are still unaware of this change to the weekend’s hours, but it will help those who work or have rehearsal early in the morning on the weekends. According to one of the dining services staff present at the meeting, there was a story posted on Emerson Dining’s Instagram page about the changes.
Joan Martinez Cuerva, the associate vice president of facilities and campus services oversees Emerson’s partnership with Bon Appétit for campus dining and catering services. Executive Treasurer Oliver Katz said, “Something heard occasionally [is] dining hall workers concerned about students and not [having] knowledge of all campus resources.”
“[There is] training with staff twice a year [to] talk on how to identify changes in behavior,” Dawn Sajdyk, general manager of Bon Appétit, said in the meeting. “[Students can] come to one of us to reach out to the resources available at Emerson.”
A lot of student requests are from the comment board in the dining hall, Sajdyk said, and she and other dining services staff read the feedback daily.
Executive Vice President Kayla Armbruster asked how dining services keep self-serving stations contaminate-free from other allergens.
“We can’t guarantee 100%,” Sajdyk said, noting self-serving stations are faster but that staff serves most of the food in the dining hall. The COVID-19 pandemic required dining staff to serve at every station. Though restrictions have been lifted over the past few years, dining services still serve about 95% of the stations in the dining hall, according to Sajdyk. This semester, all commuter students received 10 meal swipes, even if they did not opt for a meal plan.
Student Accessibility Senator Karli Wallace noted how it is a different process for off-campus students to look at their commuter plans: “To my knowledge, it might be something to look into to make sure folks know what option they have,” she said. “Theoretically, only on-campus people use [the housing portal].”
Another concern regarding meal swipes was tapping twice while moving between the Lion’s Den or private dining room back into the main dining center. Sajdyk explained that once you tap in there is a 45 minute period when a second swipe will not be taken.
“[For] times of [when students are] able to get food,” Public Relations Coordinate Bry Hession said, “[I’m] curious about [dining hall hours on the] weekends.”
Dionella Lora, assistant general manager of Bon Appétit, said that this semester, the dining hall is opening two hours earlier on the weekends. However, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the weekends, students must enter through the alleyway entrance due to security reasons.
“We do ask to spread the word to not exit through the Boylston entrance,” Lora added, as there is no security posted for those hours. So far, there “haven’t been many trickling students.”
Executive President Nandan Nair brought up the issue of community spaces on campus being closed outside operational hours. Nair asked if it is possible to open these spaces on weekends—not for the food, but to have a space for students, he said.
Lora said a space like Lion’s Den is open during operational hours and closed unless it is booked for an event. Looking to partner with more student organizations this semester, she said dining services partnered with Asian Students In Alliance for Lunar New Year last Wednesday.
At the meeting, SGA also discussed allocation of funds for the EVVY Awards. Katz said there is $60,000 leftover in unallocated funds after $50,000 was allocated to the appeals budget. Executive Vice Treasure Angus Abercrombie made a motion to allocate $30,000 from the unallocated funds and to allocate $1,576 from the appeals budget to cover the appeals request for the EVVYs.
The process for an appeals request begins by submitting a form detailing the allocations of the funds. The Financial Advisory Board (FAB) will then review and approve requests between $500 and $3,000, and requests over $3,000 and will provide a recommendation before presenting it to the general assembly for final approval.
This is to “prevent against running out of money,” Abercrombie said, which has “caused award shows to suffer and underperform, and not live up to the quality [the EVVYs] expect and want,” in the past.
“While we are voting on $30,000, our [appeals] budget is only going to be impacted by $1,500, because [the $30,000 has been] set aside since August,” Katz said. “Procedurally, we have to vote on it, [the] budget remains functionally the same.”
Abercrombie added, “[The] $30,000 has never seen [a] vote from the general assembly.”
According to Abercrombie, the EVVYs are “working with a vendor giving over 50%” to offset construction cost. Katz said the allocated funds would be put towards buying the set and the cost of workers.
Wallace raised the concern about the EVVYs staff not being present at the meeting. As a result, the discussion on the appeals request from the EVVYs was postponed until the next general assembly meeting Feb. 7, where EVVY representatives should be present.
