After hearing the concerns voiced by the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) on weekend dining and vegan options, Director of Dining Services Tim Reiss recently made changes to dining options and hours.
Last week, Reiss announced the opening of the Pi Café on weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in an all-campus e-mail. Further changes, including the expansion of vegan options at Summerfields, were discussed at the dining committee meeting last Fri.
Other changes approved by Reiss and the dining committee include offering more vegan options at the Pi Café and Weshop, and a new display case for Summerfields that is expected to offer quicker, grab-and-go food options. Summerfields will also offer vegan substitutes for meat dishes made of tofu and tempeh instead of non-vegan items, according to Josh Bryant ’06, the Environmental Organizers’ Network representative to the dining committee. Reiss said that a sixth item will also be added to Summerfields’ weekday menu and that the kitchen will soon have a much-needed walk-in refrigerator.
Reiss told the WSA that despite plans to improve weekend and vegan dining, the Campus Center and the Vegan Café will remain closed on weekends.
“I’d say where the hours are right now are probably where you’ll see the hours remain until the new University Center opens,” Reiss said.
“Between the health department, the fire marshal, and other issues like that, we have done our best with the facilities we have at the Campus Center. We cannot continue to offer the options that you and everyone else wants on this campus at the Campus Center,” he said.
Bryant said the primary reason for limiting hours at the Vegan Café was not fire safety because cooking with oil could be addressed by simply using water instead. He said that financial considerations were the real reason for the café’s closing, but that the dining committee is committed to offer more vegan options.
“It’s not a good situation, but it’s what they’re financially willing and able to do,” Bryant said, who had told Reiss that vegans were starving earlier at the WSA meeting.
Reiss said that the student feedback he has received went beyond constructive suggestions and included students cursing at Reiss and his staff and vandalism at the Pi Café.
“I had a student come up to me at Summerfields and just say F you,” said Reiss. “Please get the word out to be civil,” he told the WSA.
Student Activities Committee Chair Becca Solow ’04 said during the meeting that fellow dining committee member Dan Matzkin ’06 is collecting feedback about Summerfields and Daniel Rubin ’06 is getting feedback on the Campus Center.
Several WSA members also complained that Summerfields does not accept meal equivalencies for freshmen on weekends. Reiss said that weekend brunch will start to accept freshmen meals, but its evening menu will still only accept points. He said that conversations he has had with parents led him to believe that most freshmen do not know that the Campus Center accepts meals for breakfast.
“There’s been a lot of growing pains this first couple of weeks,” he said in reference to Summerfields.
Student Budget Committee Chair Camille Zahnisher ’04 said that the distance of the dining facilities from the Washington Street side of campus puts a burden on students living there.
“I think another cart, another Pi Café, might be an option,” Reiss said. He said that this would be shorter-term solution that the new University Center will eventually solve.
Emily Polak ’05 asked Reiss about the job security of workers due to the recent accepting of points at Thai Gardens.
“I can tell you right now workers have many more jobs now than they ever had on this campus,” Reiss said. He added that 55 cents out of every dollar spent by students go to pay labor costs. However, Reiss said that if the off-campus points program was extended in the future it would have an impact on workers’ jobs.
“I’d hate to see everyone take their dining dollars off campus,” he said. “Where it’s going to go in the future is it’s going to go to Flexpoints unless the students and administration say differently.”
Solow also said that the off campus points program will end after this semester. The Flexpoints program will involve putting a money account separate from the meal plan on student ID cards.
Solow said that she believed the last dining committee meeting to have been very productive and that progress had also been made in facilitating communication between dining services and the students. She continued that the dining website will be regularly updated and that there will be a place for students to send suggestions, which will receive responses within a 24-hour period.
“There are trade-offs,” Solow said. “It’s very difficult to run a dining program with as many different options as we have and such a small student body.”
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