Two issues ago, I wrote regarding Sodexho’s apparent indifference to student feedback of any significance and gave several examples of how they had failed to meet student expectations for menus, food variety, breakfast selection, meal plan choices, and hours of operation. It is now with congratulations and apologies to Sodexho that I write this column. There are actually many problems, but until last week, I had grossly misunderstood their origin and natures.
Last week, I had finally had it with Sodexho and decided to leave a stern message for a member of their senior staff, berating their response to my suggestions. A day later, I was pleasantly surprised when my dining hall supervisor left me a message asking me to meet with him. Last Friday, I was greeted by not one, but three senior Sodexho staffers, who had taken time out of their busy schedules to meet with a dissatisfied student.
That occurrence in itself would have been cause for an apology on my part, but they went further. For nearly an hour, we discussed some of the concerns I had, as well as some of the broader policy suggestions I had. My suggestion to have hot cereal served at BARH was acted upon almost immediately—oatmeal and a microwave made a timely appearance.
Also, the meeting bridged the lack of communication between students and the employees that support their efforts. For instance, I found out that Sodexho, in response to complaints of variety of dinner choices, has instituted a 16-week food rotation cycle —meaning that students will not be getting the same entrée in the same semester—a big leap forward from last year, and a development that students should have been aware of.
Many of the larger policy problems that came up in our discussion, however, were policies that were set about nine years ago when Sodexho got together student focus groups and asked them about these issues. Each semester, Sodexho invites students to food committee meetings in order to evaluate changes in student opinions and usage of the dining facilities. Unfortunately, only a handful of students make an appearance at these meetings.
Even so, Sodexho makes an outstanding effort to get student feedback via comment cards, interaction with the staff, surveys, and a plethora of other means. But these forms of feedback do not serve to address the broader policy issues that characterized the discussion of the focus groups all those years ago.
We fill out surveys and comment cards, but in 10 years or so, we’ve effected no change in Sodexho policies that might benefit the student body as a whole. There are policies out that don’t make any sense—the hours of the BARH dining hall, the location of late-night dining, the difference between meal plans, and a plethora of other issues. It’s not Sodexho’s fault that students are unhappy with their policies. The only way policies that are disadvantageous to the student body change is through students voicing their dissatisfaction to outlets designed for the purpose—Sodexho management, The Poly, and your elected student government officials.
