Dartmouth Dining Services recently posted signs warning that, due to an employee shortage, dine-in meals would be served on paper plates at Food Court and Homeplate. Although the signs have disappeared, the shortage and resulting long lines have not.
Ninety students are working for DDS in over 11 locations on campus, but DDS still needs 60 more.
"For certain students, work at DDS is still attractive, but not for everyone," said Tucker Rossiter, Director of Dining Service.
Despite guaranteeing its student employees flexible hours and a 20-percent discount on meals, the number of students working for DDS has still been declining.
Rossiter believes that this is because there are more jobs available on campus now than before the opening of such facilities as Berry Library.
DDS Personnel Administrator Kelly Mousley added that students are trying harder to find jobs that help their rsums and are more related to their studies.
Rossiter explained that employee shortages tend to happen at the beginning of the term because students are still concerned about their schedules.
Mousley expects that more freshmen will eventually sign up for DDS because of the large size of the Class of 2005. But so far, the number of freshman applications is comparable to previous years. Rossiter said that first-year students generally need time to adjust to their studies here.
"But they are now making adjustments," Mousley said. "Some students take on a lot of hours and start working right away."
In order to compensate for the shortage of student employees, DDS added 12 full-time employees last year. Finding full-time employees is also difficult, though, because foodservice employees are in high demand, not only in Hanover but also in surrounding areas, such as West Lebanon.
On the topic of paper plates, Rossiter said that DDS is unhappy because it tries to be "green" on campus -- DDS is a major provider for the composting facility. Only Thayer Dining Hall has a dishwasher, though, so at other cafeterias, they cannot help serving food on paper plates.
Even at Thayer, the machine may break down and force the staff to use disposable containers, although this does not happen often. Due in part to the efforts of Dartmouth's earth-friendly student group, the Purchasing Advisory Committee, DDS hopes to be using recycled paper plates with more post-consumer content around Feb. 1.
While the number of employees last term was also 90, equivalent to this term, they did not have to serve dine-in meals on paper plates. The change, according to James, came about because less students chose the dish-room as their workplace this term.
Although they are facing a shortage of student employees, DDS managers have not discussed reduction of any programs at this point. DDS will maintain operation of as many services as possible, Rossiter said. He added, however, that if DDS has more employees, it can offer better service.
In order to solve the shortage, DDS is advertising its benefits to student workers. They have had recruiting fairs with free food on the Green, in addition to putting up signs and brochures around campus.
