To the Editor:
Eight hundred dollars for a meal plan? I would like to be able to honestly say I was surprised to read that Dartmouth Dining Services is considering doubling the minimum DBA. I would like to be surprised that DDS is losing money, to the tune of $400,000 a year. However, I am quite simply not at all surprised. Not shocked, not even mildly startled.
Why does it not amaze me that the college which is home to one of the nation's top business schools cannot run a dining service that at least breaks even? The plain fact is that for too long, DDS has had the luxury of fiscal irresponsibility. Where is the incentive to run efficient, customer-oriented programs when it is a well known fact that one can just force the student body to pay more for their food?
The upper management of DDS frames its current quandary in terms of having two options: raise prices or cut services. I propose that the administration take a larger view of the situation, one with three possible choices: 1) Make DDS financially solvent without requiring students to buy more food than the average person could possibly eat; 2) Hire someone who can perform the first option; or 3) Remove the albatross that DDS has become and find a contractor who can provide comparable service at a reasonable rate.
