Renovations overwhelm Dining Services staff

Students in Rockefeller and Mathey colleges returned this year to a renovated dining hall and more food variety, but dining hall staff have been straining to deal with the changes.

The Rocky-Mathey dining halls underwent extensive renovations this summer, merging the two serveries to create one large space with better lighting and an increased variety in food, drawing in students from across campus. But the renovations shrunk the kitchen space, leaving dining hall workers ill-equipped to deal with the influx of people.

"Since renovations, the people here have been feeling it's a slave camp," said Robert, a cook in Rocky-Mathey. He and all other dining staff interviewed for this article were granted anonymity to allow them to speak freely without fear of repercussions from Dining Services. They are quoted using pseudonyms.

Other workers declined to comment for this article — even when offered anonymity — because they were afraid they would be fired if they were seen talking to a reporter and their quotes were later connected to them.

"The place looks beautiful, but it's not designed to function," said Claire, a dining hall worker. The new design features a larger servery but smaller kitchen space, dish room and storage areas. Less space means more work for the staff to keep the place running.

This has led to inconveniences for students as well, since the dining hall runs out of trays, silverware and certain food items on a regular basis. "We don't run out every day, but this week we ran out of food on Monday and Tuesday," Robert said. "If we have a main entree people like, we will run out."

Even if the food doesn't run out, the dining halls and servery are often overcrowded. "A lot more people are coming here and there is a lot less space," Robert said. The staff have been working overtime more often since the renovations, he said, as frequently as three or four times a week.

"When the new facilities opened this fall, there were a number of shifts that extended beyond eight hours," Stu Orefice, Dining Services director, said in an email. "This includes managers in addition to our professional staff in the union."

Orefice called this "normal operating procedure" and added that workers are paid overtime when a shift extends beyond eight hours.

But Michael, another Rocky-Mathey worker, said his workload has skyrocketed. "I work a lot harder," he said. "The kitchen facility is smaller, [and] there is less equipment and room to work with. I wish they would have left it the way it was."

"We don't have enough manpower, so we're doing triple the work," Claire said.

Tommy Parker, president of the local Service Employees International Union and a mail carrier for University Mail Services, said he has received an unusually large number of complaints from Rocky-Mathey dining staff this year.

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"There's always the usual complaints, but in this case they are overworked and understaffed," Parker said.

The workers said they filed requests with Dining Services to add more staff but have not yet received help with their workload. "It has gone to management, but all they are telling us is that they are working on it," Claire said. Other staff said help has been brought in from other dining halls during a few of the busiest shifts, but no permanent solution has been found.

Orefice did not comment on the Rocky-Mathey staffing issues, but he did say that Dining Services "continuously review our staffing models and make adjustments accordingly in all dining operations."

When asked if he had received any complaints from dining hall staff, Orefice said workers have given positive feedback on the renovations. "We have received great feedback from our dining team members," he said.

Orefice said Rocky-Mathey is serving 5 to 10 percent more students than last year. But numbers on some days have been even higher, with some meals receiving over 800 diners, well more than at an average meal last year.

Parker said the increase in overtime is a result of scheduling issues and a lack of communication between Dining Services and workers.

"In terms of overtime, there should be ample notification, and it should be properly rotated between workers," Parker said. "It is up to the department to express their needs and sit down and dialogue with staff. People have to know what is expected of them."

Meredith Bock '10, a member of Princeton for Workers' Rights, said the growing workload for dining hall staff had already had come to her attention. The organization is gathering testimonials from dining hall workers and will then decide how to proceed in its efforts to help them.

"One of the biggest problems [with campus workers] that has come up this year is the overwhelming concentration of students and subsequent strain on workers in the newly redone dining halls," Bock said in an email.

"We just need to hire more staff," said Jill, another worker.

Orefice said Dining Services tries to tailor its staff and equipment to dining halls' needs. "Our student workforce is smaller than we expected, not only at Rockefeller and Mathey, but campus-wide," he said. He did not comment on possible expansions of full-time staff.

"The new serving areas are like a new pair of shoes," Orefice added. "They look great but are a bit uncomfortable at first. It will take a while before our team is totally comfortable with the operation."

Robert added that he saw a discrepancy between the ample funds allocated to renovate the dining halls and the failure to hire new staff. He said he thinks Dining Services has concentrated on aesthetic changes — possibly to impress students, parents and potential donors — while neglecting workers' situations. "I think they concentrate too much on chandeliers," he said.

Student workers had mixed views of how the growing Rocky-Mathey crowds have affected them. "The first few weeks were difficult," said Alicia Bray '08, a student coordinator. "We were trying to learn and transition into a new system while simultaneously training several dozen new student workers, and it was quite stressful."

But Bray emphasized the support that she and her coworkers received from Dining Services. Now, she said in an email, "we have several dozen trained student workers and a dozen student managers who ... have been able to adapt quite well to the situation."

Chelsea Martinez '10, who works in the servery, said the layout of the renovated dining halls is still problematic for some workers. "The dish crew room is so tiny now," she said. "It's so cramped. I don't know how they get any work done."

Kitchen workers held different views on hope for improvement in the dining hall work environment.

"With the right manpower, this place would run wonderfully," said Dan, another worker.

"It's getting worse, not better," Claire said. "We are killing ourselves. We are shorthanded ... Everybody is on edge, stressed out. It's just totally insane."

But Claire said she was skeptical that the University would be willing to acknowledge the difficulties she and her coworkers are facing. "This is supposed to be the top-of-the-line, the state-of-the-art, the example that Princeton is the best," she said of the new renovations. "They are not going to make out that there are problems here, but there are major problems."