Students have been forced to grapple with limited options for food as Campus Dining Services experiences shortened hours due to low student employment. Some current and former employees believe the problem is the result of a poor working environment.
Senior Ryan Elkins worked at Baja Grill for a semester as a freshman.
“We were overworked, and management didn’t seem to care about our level of schoolwork or personal matters,” Elkins said. “They only care that you show up and work your shifts; anything else is dismissed.“
While most of the venues from the end of last year retained their original services in some capacity, several have reduced or otherwise adjusted hours.
Multiple prominent locations were affected, such as Mort’s, which now closes at 4:30 p.m. every day. Pizza & MO (formerly Rollins Dining Hall and Rollins @Night) shuts doors at 9 p.m. every night instead of last year’s closing time of 11 p.m.
Dining hours at specific venues are determined by a variety of factors, with CDS attributing the main cause of the current issue to low employment rates. Nancy Monteer, director of CDS, addressed the challenges of hiring employees and understaffing.
“We have fewer staff and not as many applicants for open positions,” Monteer said in a statement to The Maneater. “It has been a challenge in the food industry nationwide. To increase the number of part-time employees, we have raised our hourly wage; and for students, we have always worked around their class schedules, which you might not find at a location not affiliated with the university.”
According to Monteer, CDS has 430 student employees, 113 full-time employees and six part-time employees as of Sept. 6. As the semester progresses, CDS expects more individuals — predominantly students — to apply for positions. In the meantime, administrators are working on keeping as many locations open as possible with the current resources.
“With our limited staffing, we need to focus on consolidating operations while still providing multiple options to our customers,” Monteer said. “We added some days to some locations and subtracted days from other locations. Additionally, as we grow staff levels, we will be able to extend some location hours, such as at Pizza & MO.”
As CDS continues to balance scheduling and as venue hours gradually improve, some employees attribute staffing issues to not just a lack of interest, but a toxic work environment.
“I assume it’s because the student workers aren’t treated well,” Elkins said. “They only care that you show up and work your shifts, anything else is dismissed. I remember I had to leave town for a funeral, and I got in trouble because I didn’t come in for my shift, even though I let them know ahead of time. I also one time got burned badly while on the shift and outside of a bandage they never showed any care.”
Alongside student workers’ gripes with CDS management, full-time workers have also voiced concern over MU’s handling of employee benefits. A specific point of contention is a new university-wide paid time off model that reduces the potential amount of paid time off salaried employees can receive from 41 to 31 days per year.
“In Campus Dining Services’ defense, it is difficult to recruit workers when MU’s leadership continues its war on workers by drastically cutting benefits with the new PTO plan, and offering wages that continue to lose pace with inflation as their two main selling points,” CDS employee Kevin Perkins said in a statement to The Maneater. “It’s even worse for some student workers who are expected to essentially do the work of a full-time employee with even less pay equity.”
Not only have employees voiced concern around working conditions and benefits, students have also had difficulty accessing dining locations, and some tell of skipping meals.
“Here I’ve probably been averaging a meal a day, which is really bad,” freshman Avery Brooman said. “I’m weak; I’ve lost like 8 pounds now in a matter of three weeks, which is probably not healthy. It’s not intentional. It’s more a matter of my schedule and then the wait times and just the quality of the food overall.”
Although the problems surrounding treatment of employees appear to be ongoing, CDS hopes to add increased dining hours and reduce wait times for students as it hires more applicants throughout the semester.
“At the beginning of the semester, our lines can be long at certain locations,” Monteer said. “We encourage students to try venues that might not have as much traffic at certain times of day. We are unable to stay open longer or open more venues currently because of the staffing issues. As we hire and train staff, we will look at what changes we can make.”
Edited by Zoe Homan | zhoman@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Grace Locke and Jacob Richey | jrichey@themaneater.com