Toward the end of fall term, I wrote a column entitled "DDS vs. Common Sense" (Nov. 23). My hope was to elicit some kind of response from somebody who would tell me whether or not my assertions about what I thought to be absurd food prices were warranted. While I didn't take any action beyond having the column published, I still thought at least one person who could tell me I was wrong would read it and let me know. That didn't quite happen.
So, because of the lack of anybody telling me differently, I was set to assume (as I usually do) that I was right. Right before I laid my ideas to rest, however, the thought occurred to me that I could actually ask somebody who knew why the meal plans are so whacky and why a Billy Bob costs $6.35. This personal initiative thing was new to me, but I gave it a shot. I contacted the Dartmouth Dining Services administration and scheduled a meeting with Tucker Rossiter and David Newlove, director and assistant director of DDS.
The meeting began with me basically running through the column from last fall, highlighting my main grievances with DDS. Namely, prices higher than what seemed reasonable and rigidly structured meal plans with no rollover. The answers I received were both satisfactory and perception-changing.
Here's an interesting number: DDS has to spend about $40,000 a year to replace lost or stolen silverware, cups and trays. That's just one of the many costs that DDS incurs that one may not think about when judging the fairness of the DDS system. More significantly affecting costs for DDS are rising food prices, keeping many different facilities open during fringe hours, and providing a living wage to its employees.
The moral high ground is no stranger to the DDS administration in its decision-making. "The College takes seriously the idea of a living wage," Newlove told me. In contrast, the dining service at Harvard recently got into some trouble subcontracting custodial jobs for less-than-acceptable wages. "You wouldn't see that at Dartmouth," he stressed, talking about the importance of benefits, vacation time, and fair pay.
Just as admirable as the College's focus on having happy employees is its focus on supporting local farmers and healthy eating. Dartmouth is the largest customer of Vital Communities, a co-op of sorts of local farms that sells healthy, fresh and organic foods. This is not a huge percentage of the food here, but an important act of solidarity with the local community.
As for prices at Topside that I found to be egregiously high, the administrators had several responses. "It's not about a bargain, it's a convenience," Rossiter said of Topside. "We simply don't have the buying power that a CVS has." The amalgam of higher product prices and higher operating costs puts the self-sufficient DDS in a position of struggling to just break even.
Dartmouth's dining options are quite unique among the nation's institutions of higher learning. Rather than a DBA, most schools opt for a certain number of all-you-can-eat meals a week. The advantage of the DBA is that coffee and a bagel will not cost the same as a four-course meal. The disadvantage is that at the end of the term, all of your leftover money's cancellation from your account is a much more tangible loss than just skipping a breakfast at another school. "Both ways you're losing money by skipping meals, students just tend to notice it more with a DBA system," said Rossiter.
Rossiter and Newlove will be the firsts to admit that the system is not perfect, however. A meeting with Student Assembly President Julia Hildreth is on the horizon. On the table is the formation of an ad-hoc group to discuss the restructuring of the meal plan system. This exploratory group has the full backing of Rossiter and Newlove and only needs the initiative of the Assembly. Here, Hildreth has a huge opportunity to look at fixing clear inefficiencies in the system. Items that should be explored are changing the DBA plans to perhaps feature a degree of rollover between terms and taking a second look at the efficiency of certain food outposts in the system. If she and her colleagues want, they can even make the changes a super-secret surprise.
While I still feel a degree of frustration when paying $4 for a cup of pasta much smaller than my fist at the Hop, my meeting with the DDS administration has given me a new appreciation of why I'm paying the extra money. It's so I can grab some chicken nuggets late Friday night, and so somebody else can eat breakfast before early morning drill. Dartmouth students should be fine with and even used to the idea of our money going to things we don't use. Take, for example, any event the Student Assembly has sponsored. Ever.