Dining halls change, but results are still mixed

This winter brought more than just frozen toes and frozen classrooms. It has also brought us frozen yogurt and controversial overcrowding.

The more fortunate Jonathan Edwards College welcomed back its students this semester with its first frozen yogurt machine, a sparkling new Colombo model prepared to titillate students with its dairy goodness. Student reaction to the frozen yogurt machine has been positive, according to JE dining hall manager Jon Birney, and not a single student has complained of additional crowding in the dining hall.

CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH Colombo's frozen yogurt in Jonathan Edwards and a pasta bar in Morse are among the changes made to dining halls recently.

The same has not held true in Morse College, where the addition of a large Pan Geos pasta bar has combined with the college's proximity to the Swing Space to exacerbate spatial problems. The situation has provoked some students to protest. "It's difficult to sit down at a table without bumping into someone behind you," reported Morse College Council (MCC) President, Matthew Vogel, MC '02. The MCC has slated Tuesday to discuss restricting dining hall access to students outside of Morse, in hopes of alleviating the crowding. "The question is whether students have the right to eat in their own college," Vogel explained, echoing the arguments of Berkleyites last semester who hoped to restrict access to their dining hall.

Michael Stringer, the area manager of Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, has heard these complaints before. He acknowledged that the Pan Geos bar has taken up space in the hall, requiring that the chairs be positioned closer together. "It makes things a little more confining," he admitted. However, he denies that the college is actually serving more people. "Just more people go to the station," he explained. He also defends the Pan Geos, despite its imposition on space. "When we did our survey, the overwhelming preponderance of people loved it." Stringer believes that the MCC will have trouble barring students on its own. "If they restrict in Morse, people will sneak through from Stiles . . . the restriction will be very ineffective if they don't talk to the people over there."

The Pan Geos pasta bar, like JE's frozen yogurt machine, has materialized thanks to Yale University Dining Services' (YUDS) new Aramark administration. "The [changes] are a way to deal with previous student dissatisfaction," according to Stringer. Aramark, an international managed-services corporation, has initiated many such changes since it took a supervisory role over YUDS last year. Despite Morse's current hardships, these changes have largely been met with positive student responses. Yalies' reactions to Durfee's major renovations, for example, have been a pleasant surprise to Aramark. "They are very, very good, much better than we had anticipated," according to Durfee Sweet Shoppe Manager Paul Tinker. The renovations, meant to turn the coffee shop into more of a convenience store, were an attempt to respond to student needs, especially after the closing of Store 24 left a demand for another small market near Yale. Tinker predicts that Durfee's will undergo another change this summer, perhaps to renovate the espresso area to provide an expanded product line.

Such changes are mandated from above by Aramark directors. "We local managers don't make the major decisions," Ed Bebyn, a manager of Commons, said. "We are working with administrators to see how we can improve."

As for changes in the future, Stringer, who is also the manager of the Hall of Graduate Studies dining hall, said, "We have had some conversation about adding an Asian station to the graduate school dining hall, much like the Pan Geos in Stiles and Morse." For now, however, these culinary changes must take a back seat to more pressing undergraduate renovations. "There is a plan to renovate Commons, but the residential college renovations are a priority," General Manager Robert Alberino said. In fact, the specter of long and complicated renovations has postponed dining hall changes in some of the older colleges. Currently, Saybrook and Timothy Dwight [TD] dining halls are both waiting for the larger residential college overhauls. "We are slated for a complete renovation in two years where there will be much goodness," TD dining hall manager Peter Wimmer said.

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