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Soren Spicknall
TECHNEWS WRITER

The vast majority of resident
students at IIT eat in Sodexo locations for most
of their meals due to the fact that the company
has exclusive rights to serve prepared food on
campus and that meal plans are built into the
fabric of the school’s housing contract This
level of mandated participation brings with
it inevitable levels of dissatisfaction; when
somebody eats in the Commons for two meals
each day, they’re bound to see Sodexo staff and
their products at their best and their worst, and
to witness longiterm patterns in food services
that they wish to see changed

On a Tuesday evening in the MTCC
Welcome Center, IIT’s Student Government
Association (SGA) briefly opened a new
avenue for students to directly communicate
their concerns on the topic of dining, holding
a town hallistyle meeting featuring open input
and discussion between a group of about
two dozen participating students and a panel
composed of individuals from Sodexo, IIT’s
Office of Campus Life, Residence and Greek
Life, Student Affairs, and the Food Advisory
Board

While such a meeting could easily
have been standoflish and counterproductive,
this particular occasion actually went rather
smoothly, and many in attendance say they
left with a better understanding of IIT’s
Dining Services than they had in the past,
if not necessarily a higher opinion thereof
Students spoke passionately on topics ranging
from specific complaints about certain menu
items to stories of poor treatment by staff in
various Sodexo locations, and for the most
part, those comments were addressed by the
staff members present

A number of major themes came
about during the course of the town hall event,
but perhaps the most consistent issue wasn’t
the most obvious one at the beginning of the
meeting There were a number of times when
students spent significant time behind the
microphone speaking about a lack of certain
options, only to find out that those options had
actually been recently expanded This same
phenomenon was echoed when discussing

Union Board opens executive no

Melanie Standish
TECH N EWS WRITER

Illinois Tech’s Union Board is opening up
nominations and applications for three open
positions for their Spring 2016 executive
board

Nominations can be suggested
through the Google form found at tinyurll
com/UB2016App or by emailing president@
ubiitlorgl Applications for the positions will
open on Hawklink on November 12 and will
close on November 191

Union Board is an event program,
ming board, developed in 1938, to enhance
life on campus for Illinois Tech studentst
Union Board has brought the IIT student
body big events such as Homecoming, MTCC

ABE

Read another music review from
WIIT!

SPORTS

Check out upcoming IIT athletics
events.

Page 7

 

Student newspaper of Illinois Institute of Technology since 1928

ining Town Hall puts emphasis on
customer service, student feedback

some recent changes to hours in the Commons,
which is now open until 2:30 pm for lunch on
weekdays and has weekend breakfast hoursl
Many of the students present, who were
arguably those who cared most about Dining
Services, were completely unaware of such new
policies or options from Sodexol One of the
core takeaways from the town hall seemed to
be that a large part of the dissonance between
students and Sodexo comes down to a failure
on the latter’s part to properly communicate, as
evidenced by the fact that programs like Meal

Exchanges and Express Meals only became
widely known within the last month, despite
the fact that they had existed for a semester
priorl

Through partnerships with SGA
and Residence Hall Association, which both
send representatives to Food Advisory Board
meetings, Sodexo will hopefully be able to
disseminate information about their new
programs in a more effective manner going
forward, helping to improve public opinion of
their responsiveness to student input as they
implement changes

Along with outward communication

Late Niite, and Spring Formal, along with
smaller events like monthly movie screenings,
discounted ticket sales, and biweekly coffee,
houses

Three positions will be available for
Union Board’s Spring 2016 executive board
The three positions available for applications
include our Off Campus, Music, and Market,
ing Chairst

Union Board’s OffCampus Chair
programs events such as ticket sales, often of
the sports or Broadway variety, along with
popular offcampus events such as wing
crawlt Specific questions about the position
can be directed to the current chair, Chris, at
offcampus@ubiitlorgl

Union Board’s Music Chair pro,
grams musicirelated performances such as

from Dining Services, another major point of
the town hall was to share strategies for more
regular student inputt Ricky Stevenson, the
organizer of the Food Advisory Board, took
the opportunity to introduce the organization
to the public, welcoming any students to join
their open meetings every other Friday at 3:30
pm in the Pritzker Club, meetings which
include half a dozen individuals from Sodexo’s
management The Food Advisory Board has
traditionally been responsible for making
major dining decisions (such as the addition of

 

Photo [7}! Reno Waswil

ice cream to the Commons), and is the most
direct, consistent source of student input to
Dining Services

In addition to Food Advisory
Board, Sodexo General Manager Chris Ferenc
strongly encouraged students to fill out the
feedback cards which are available in most
dining locations on campus, and clarified
that those cards are directly discussed daily
in administrative meetingst Finally, Ferenc
stressed that managers inside the Commons
are trained to take in immediate concerns,
and that Sodexo’s email address is open to any
concerns as well

Hawks Coffeehouses, Center Court perfori
mances, and All the Riite Moves, a dance se7
ries Specific questions can be directed to the
current chair, Shireen, at music@ubiitlorgl

Union Board’s Marketing Chair
promotes Union Board through flyers, post,
ers, giveaways, and anything that puts the
Union Board name out into the public Spei
cific questions can be directed to the current
chair, Sa.ny, at market@ubiitlorgl

All students are encouraged to ap7
ply A student does not need to have prior
experience with Union Board; however, other
experience with programming events, or with
other student organizations on campus, is
highly recommended

Serving in one of these positions
is a great chance to join a really fun team of

Volume 183 I Issue 9

technewsiit.com

CAMPUS 2-5

AErE 5-6
SLIPSTICK 1
SPORTS 1

The meeting was about more than
just methods for submitting feedback, thought
Students did not sit through two hours of
discussion just for the purpose of learning
where to direct their input; instead, they
were there to voice their concerns right that
instant about Sodexo locations and staff This
is where audience members were at their most
animated and even angry, actively venting
their frustrations directly to those they held
responsible

Many students were dissatisfied with
general cooking quality, especially when it
came to basic dishes like ricer More specifically,
a significant contingent of those present agreed
that Sodexo staff members seemed to lack care
about the quality of the food they served,
particularly on weekends Staff training came
up more than anything else in the meeting,
touching on sanitation issues as well as
customer service Students shared stories of
being rudely told not to use their phones while
waiting for omelets to cook and of having their
concerns about mislabeled nonivegetarian
menu items completely dismissed and the
behavior repeatedl When it came to staff
issues, Ferenc and others on the panel stressed
the importance of noting a specific time, place,
and staff member for each such situation and
addressing an email to Dining Services on the
subject, since they tend to address such issues
on a caseibyicase basis In response, students
noted that staff inside Sodexo locations seem
to be poorly trained in customer service, and
that more general, thorough action is needed
to fix many of the problems caused by the
behaviors of certain people among the front,
line staff

Throughout the course of the town
hall, the consistent crowd learned a great deal
about how Sodexo makes its policy decisions,
and the professional staff responsible for food
decisions seemed to take away a few important
points from their audience It remains to be
seen what changes will be made and whether
those changes will be properly communicated
to the customers of Dining Services, but along
with other methods of feedback, this town hall
seemed like a good place to start

minations

schoolispirited people who love Illinois Tech
and want to make others love it tool Union
Board gives students the autonomy to choose
what they want to see on campus to enhance
the overall student experience It’s an opportu7
nity you won’t want to miss out on!

All interested individuals can
attend Union Board general body meetings
every Thursday in E1 Room 258 during the
lunch hour Students can also like Union
Board at Illinois Tech on Facebook or follow
@iitunionboard on Snapchat, Instagram, and
Twittert Union Board highly encourages you
to check us out, and if you have any general
questions, reach out to president@ubiittorgt