After weeks of vocal student dissatisfaction and meal plan change cards, Dartmouth Dining Services Director David Newlove responded to student complaints about the increased price of the SmartChoice mealplan and the plan's logisitical problems at a heated panel on Monday night in the Paganucci Conference Room in the Class of 1953 Commons.
Much of the forum focused on the economics of the new SmartChoice meal plans. Newlove said that under the previous DBA-based plan there was inequity among students based on financial status. Some students on financial aid simply chose not to spend money on College meals and ate free crackers with peanut butter, he said.
"There was a class system being developed," Newlove said. "You had the haves and the have nots."
The new dining system seeks to amend these inequalities by ensuring that everyone gets access to an appropriate amount of good food, Newlove said. He envisioned SmartChoice as a new plan that could have "the greatest positive impact on the greatest number of students," he said.
The approximately 30 students in attendance at the panel raised concerns about the dining services. Julian Sarkar '13, who said he receives partial financial aid and works 20 hours a week, discussed his struggle to deal with the increase in price of the new meal plan.
"Once I was billed for the new SmartChoice dining plan, it was no longer possible for me to stay on campus housing," Sarkar said. "I had to move into the back of my car until I could find new housing."
Sarkar is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
Travis Blalock '12 accused Newlove of misrepresenting DDS profits on Newlove's LinkedIn profile. Newlove had publically told students that DDS was breaking even and not drawing profits, according to Blalock. Newlove, however, reported a $900,000 profit two years ago, and a $1.3 million dollar profit last year on his LinkedIn profile, Blalock said. Any information regarding DDS profits on Newlove's LinkedIn profile is no longer visible.
"Basically he was misrepresenting the profits of DDS by millions of dollars," Blalock said. "The guy's a thief, a liar and a hypocrite and he belongs in prison," Blalock said.
Newlove's behavior is unacceptable, Blalock said.
"I feel betrayed, I feel lied to and I feel like [Newlove] should resign," he said.
At first, Newlove declined to address Blalock's accusation and took other questions from audience members. Audience member Kevin Wang '14 continued to press Newlove about claims on his LinkedIn page, which prompted Newlove to criticize Joseph Asch '79, founder of Dartblog and former candidate for the College's Board of Trustees, who published the information about DDS profits on Dartblog.
Newlove said Asch's information was incorrect, but would not address explicitly why these numbers had previously appeared on his LinkedIn profile.
"You have to remember that you are talking about a man, Mr. Joe Asch, who over the years clearly has had an extremely negative, derogatory and racist response to the dean of the College," Newlove said. "He publically humiliated the old dean of the College, Sylvia Spears, for being African American, for being American Indian and for her education. And someone who would stoop to that level would easily do whatever, would manipulate numbers, to get back at the institution he doesn't like."
Students also criticized the timing and quantity of meal swipes, as well as the lack of DBA that can be used at locations other than '53 Commons.
SmartChoice forces people to eat at '53 Commons even if they would prefer to eat at Collis or Courtyard Cafe, Connor Flint '12 said. Because the prices at locations other than '53 Commons are high and consistently changing, the all-you-can-eat option is often the most convenient choice even if it is not the most desirable, Flint said.
Students also complained that their number of meal swipes was set to five, 14 or 20, with no intermediate option between five and 14 meals. These intervals were created based on feedback from students who said they did not want to eat on campus during the weekend, Newlove said.
Students who spoke at the panel said the timing for meal swipes was another problem with SmartChoice. The fairly arbitrary timing that allows students to get only one meal per time slot with no rollover leads to confusion, according to students.
"There's no doubt that it's complicated," Newlove said. "Even for me it's complicated."
These logistical problems are to be expected in the early stages of the new meal plan, and will be improved and adjusted in the future, according to DDS staff members who spoke during the panel.
"You have to understand too, that you guys have been here for three weeks, we've been doing this for three weeks," Mike Ricker, manager of Collis Cafe, said. "We're trying to feel out what you don't like, what you do like."
Students interviewed by The Dartmouth said they attended the forum in order to understand the reasons for the switch to the new SmartChoice dining plan, and to see if any changes could be made to it.
"I just want to know if any progress is being made," Ismael Vallejo '14 said. "Because it seems like they're pretty set on this new dining plan, and the students aren't too happy about it."
Student Body President Max Yoeli '12 and Student Body Vice President Amrita Sankar '12 emphasized that the goal of the forum was to facilitate discussion between the students and DDS administrators, and to foster transparency to allow for future change.
"We just wanted to facilitate exchange of ideas, information and feedback," Yoeli said. "We're going to take this information and continue to aggregate it and come up with an actionable list of points."
The panel consisted of Newlove, Ricker, Associate Director of DDS Don Reed, Manager of Courtyard Cafe Steve Edes, Manager of '53 Commons Jeff Quiggley and DDS Board Plan Manager Jack Cahill, although Newlove fielded most of the questions.
The event was sponsored by the Student Assembly and Palaeopitus Senior Society.
