Student voices come to the table

The written comments on the bulletin boards by the exits of Vassar's All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) may be an effective means of communicating students' culinary preferences to Campus Dining, but they're not the only way. The Vassar Food Committee, a joint group of students and administrators, meets once a month to discuss ways in which dining on campus can be improved. In addition to exploring new gastronomical options, the Committee addresses the popularity, presentation and healthfulness of the dishes offered in the dining halls.

Recently, the Committee has entertained the possibility of bringing a new kind of coffee to campus (members will be tasting varieties in upcoming meetings), decided upon meat-free pasta salad, introduced turkey bacon and requested that the All Campus Dining Center serve more salmon. They have also re-introduced avocado, a very popular item, to the sandwich station on Thursdays.

While student feedback about dining has been a part of the Vassar ethos for a long time, the extent to which this feedback has been effective seems unclear. Ezra Roth '10, who chairs the Committee in collaboration with Senior Director of Campus Dining Maureen King, reports that sometimes the Committee's recommendations are implemented almost immediately, while other times it can take much longer—many weeks, a month, sometimes never at all.

Scrutiny is one way that students on the Committee can guarantee that their voices are being heard. "Whether or not our suggestions are being implemented all the time—that's ultimately up to administrators," said Roth. "However, members of the Committee survey the dining halls on shifts—we don't reveal to [Campus Dining] administrators when we're coming—to make sure that the many suggestions we've given are being taken seriously." Committee members may also communicate other observations at meetings. For example, Roth commented, he lets King know if he notices that the fruit does not look fresh on any given day. According to Roth, the Committee serves as an important bridge between students and Campus Dining administrators.

Members are also receptive to hearing from other students. Roth emphasized the importance of student opinion in shaping the Committee's concerns. According to Roth, he is planning on expanding the Committee's outreach in the future by placing a lockbox for comments specifically aimed at the Food Committee in ACDC and by writing more frequently on Vassar's health and wellness blog, VCFit (blogs.miscellanynews.com/vcfit/), which he has updated about every other week since the beginning of the year. Sometimes, he explained, it is the communications that come from students outside of the Committee that bring about the most significant changes.

On the topic, King remarked, "I think the Food Committee's been really instrumental. They don't realize how much influence they do have. The first time they ask for something and it happens, I think sometimes they're surprised."

She added that ultimately it is up to the Committee's members to determine how much change can be enacted, that the Committee's activity has fluctuated from year to year. She also noted that the Committee is not the only vehicle that students can use to express their opinions about campus dining. For example, coffee from a Mexican coffee cooperative called Just Coffee is available at the Retreat as the result of petitioning from a group of students who traveled to the cooperative in spring 2007 as part of an American Culture/Geography study trip to the United States-Mexico border.

Despite Roth's belief that there is always room for improvement in the Food Committee, Roth attributes the Committee's accomplishments to an open-minded and receptive administration. Roth remarked, "A common misconception is that it's very hard to get a hold of the [Campus Dining] administration. But that's not true. From my perspective, the administration really responds to student communication." King echoed this sentiment: "What we do want students to know is that we are responsive and we are flexible, and sometimes it's not until students actually meet us face-to-face that they realize that we're people who care a lot."