Upon reading the options offered to students under the referendum, I must say that I am a little confused. Rumors about Dartmouth Dining Services have abounded. By far the best one I have heard (and I wouldn't be surprised if DDS actually claimed this) is that the stealing of soda refills is at the root of DDS's financial worries. Considering a soda costs about four cents, this seems a little absurd. People would have to drink around twenty refills before DDS would lose money on this. I haven't noticed anyone camping out at the soda fountains recently, so I think this is not the cause of their worries.
Another story I have heard is that the union salary for DDS's employees is $12 an hour. That's a pretty penny for swiping cards through magnetic strips. Not that they aren't nice people, but I'm sure the labor they provide isn't so highly skilled that DDS couldn't pay someone else less for it. How about cutting some costs there?
The other mystery surrounding DDS employment is the superfluous managers that seem to be everywhere. I'm really not sure what they do. I like to know when the last call is for frozen yogurt is as much as the next guy, but do I really need to pay someone to tell me?
It seems to me that if cuts are to be made, they should come in the way DDS does business, not in how much business they do. I don't see any reason why cutbacks must come in the number of options offered. There is plenty of room for trimming in the actual operation of DDS.
If, however, none of these possibilities exist, then we are left with the options presented to us in the referendum. Maintain the current situation at a more expensive price, cut the more costly offerings or the tempting option of shutting down DDS altogether.
Well, the last option would never happen, even if the students voted for it, and for good reason. It would have terrible results. Just imagine coming up here on a tour and being told, "Food? I don't know how you're going to eat. Figure that out yourself." This would have a bad impact on the College, and I'm sure the Trustees and the administration would never let that happen.
As for the first option, I simply don't understand why we should subsidize operations that don't earn their keep. As we have heard many times in the past few weeks, DDS has a monopoly on food service at Dartmouth, so if they aren't making money, there is something drastically wrong with one of their offerings, and it should be shut down. It is nice to have options, but I'm not willing to pay an extra two hundred dollars a term for the prerogative of going to Collis on the weekends.
The argument that I least understand for this first option is that a lot of people will lose their jobs. One was quoted in The D as saying, "These people have families." Well, congratulations, but that doesn't entitle them to my money. I have a family too, and we're all working very hard to pay for this education. I don't need the extra burden of paying someone for the availability of services that I don't use.
I think that cutting the services that aren't wanted by students is the only way to vote on this issue, and that leads us to the last option. So for any of you that haven't voted on the referendum yet, I encourage the selection of choice B on the referendum.
