Step up, not out: shortages in dining centers offer opportunity to serve peers
This is the Our View, prepared by the Editorial Board and should be seen as the institutional voice of The Record.
*Editor’s Note: Landon Peterson wrote an article about the Refectory hours change in this week’s edition of The Record.*
As you may have seen, the administration recently announced hours changes to The Refectory via an email from Mary Geller, Associate Provost for Student Success. Starting March 25, the Refectory will close at 3 p.m. on Fridays and 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays. A natural reaction to this announcement is to complain. You might turn to your friend and say, “Are you kidding me?! I’m paying all of this money just for the Reef to be closed on Friday and Saturday evenings?”
That’s a fair take. A better argument would be to say that as consumers of the CSB and SJU product, we are entitled to the full services traditionally offered by the colleges —and right now, that bargain is not being upheld. If the services offered at St. Ben’s and St. John’s operated on a fixed pricing system, this reduction in offerings from the sellers—the colleges—would reduce for the buyers, the students. However, there’s another reaction you should have. Get up, walk over to the nearest mirror, and ask yourself if you’re part of the problem. Better yet, walk over to the Refectory or Gorecki and fill out an application (or, more realistically, fill it out online).
There’s a shortage of staff and employees on these campuses, and students are partly to blame. According to Angie Mareck, CSB+SJU Director of Student Employment, about 55% of CSB+SJU students currently work on campus, while in 2019, about 70% of students held an on-campus job. While student employment is on a decline overall, employment at dining services is facing an even steeper decrease. Five years ago, around 350 students on both campuses worked in on-campus dining. Today, that number has been cut in half, with only 180 students employed by dining services.
The Refectory and Gorecki pay more money than any other job on campus—part of the effort management has made to make the job more attractive. Gorecki student prep cooks are being offered $14.25 hourly, with a $100 bonus after 80 hours worked and up to a $500 bonus at the end of the spring semester. Most SJU dining services jobs are paid slightly less, around $13 an hour with bonuses available, but even so, these wages are higher than other typical student employment wages. An additional counterpoint to the “be part of the solution, get to work” argument is acknowledging enticement of off campus positions. These roles can offer increased pay or specialization opportunities not presented on campus.
This said, where this consumer-based argument falls shorts is the acknowledgment of our Benedictine community. Since the 17th century, few consistencies have remained at CSB and SJU, with one being the Rule of Benedict and its Benedictine Values. The Benedictine Value of community living comes into form in R.B. 3.1, which states “As often as anything important is to be done…call the whole community together.” To fully function as a community, fulfilling our basic needs is essential. To ignore our calling to our community is a disservice to our peers and disingenuous to our Benedictine heritage. As the Feast of St. Benedict reminds us, students exhibit the Benedictine Values throughout their lives regardless of their faith identity or intention.
However, you arrive at St. Ben’s and St. John’s, consider the opportunity to serve our peers present in the Dining Halls. To complain about Dining Hall reductions and not be part of the solution is negligent. As a community, we need to stand together and be part of the change—not sit on the sideline.