To the Editor:
It saddens me to think of the perception of DDS today on campus as "crappy" and the last resort employment resort for students forced to work in college. I worked at DDS for three and half years during my time at Dartmouth and I had a blast doing it. There was a sense of camaraderie to be found among DDS workers that my friends who worked never had with their co-workers. Even today, many of my close friends are friends I made working those late nights in Food Court.
When I was at Dartmouth, DDS was considered the best job because of the salary and because the time working went by quickly. The hours then were no different then many other positions. Students worked shifts as long as they wanted. Some people would prefer to work six hours, while others only worked two hours shifts.
The best part about working at DDS was that I gained valuable skills that could never be gained working in the library. While working at DDS, I routinely managed a staff of 12 students or more.
Additionally, I had to manage the staff while managing the relationships between the full-time workers and the student workers. Learning how to motivate a team, assign responsibilities and work with a variety of personalities has served me well. So while I had to make sandwiches, I also got to talk with the students about their lives.
DDS may not offer "study time for pay," but out of my experiences working at the College, DDS has come closest to matching what my experience has been like to work in corporate America. I've had to work with bosses who were very particular about what they wanted, much like those students who were specific about how their sandwiches should be. I've had to work with people who were apathetic to performing quality work, and my experience as a supervisor has taught me how to motivate these people to get tasks accomplished. And working at DDS under late-night conditions has taught me the value of teamwork, which is an essential workplace skill.
Perception becomes reality. If students perceive DDS to be crappy then it will be. If students perceive and realize all of the wonderful benefits DDS has offered to countless Dartmouth students prior, then DDS can once again be the campus job of choice.
