Comments from the most recent Dining Services People’s Choice Survey show that although students are generally satisfied with dining, there is room for improvement.
All 802 student responses to the survey varied from highly positive to highly negative. Several hundred students criticized the dining system, especially for poor service and negative interactions between employees and students, according to a Chronicle analysis of the comments.
“I consider the survey results as our year-end report card,” Director of Dining Services Jim Wulforst said. “As we wind down the semester, we need to plan for next year. Dining is still a work in progress.”
To gauge student opinion on dining, the survey is sent to all undergraduates twice a year. More than 1,000 students rated dining experiences on a one to 10 scale, and more than 800 submitted written comments, said Tammy Hope, Duke University Food Services manager of quality assurance.
Dining Services has not yet compiled the final report for the Fall semester survey, but it will share the results with managers and the union that represents some dining employees in the next few weeks.
Some eateries on campus were highly praised—Blue Express and the Refectory at the Divinity School received solely positive feedback. For the most part, students commended dining’s efforts to incorporate healthy menu options over the past year.
Many of the criticisms regarding food and service concerned the Great Hall, the Marketplace and Subway, all of which have many customers.
In the extreme cases, negative comments include: “I feel like I am unwelcome,” “Some workers are helpful, but many will simply stare at you, ignore you and/or yell at you if you make a mistake in ordering” and “Though I am respectful to them, I do not feel respected at the Great Hall.”
Because the survey was voluntary, students tended to write in only if they had strong opinions on dining, Wulforst said. The prominence of The Marketplace and the Great Hall on campus also contributed to the polarized results.
Still, Subway—which has fewer customers than the Great Hall or The Marketplace—generated almost the same number of negative comments.
Who’s to blame?
In the surveys, students often pinned poor experiences on either Bon Appétit Management Company or union employees. Union employees represented by Local 77—which also includes employees in housekeeping and facilities management—make up the majority of the workforce in the Great Hall, The Marketplace, Subway and Chick-Fil-A, which are vendors run by Bon Appétit.
Over the past decade, union employees have been unfairly blamed for dysfunctions in dining, said Georgia Terrell, a senior lead food service worker in the Great Hall. She added that she thinks many complaints regarding service take place at night when many staff members are part-time high school and college students, who are non-unionized.
“You can’t tell the difference between union employees and part-time students,” Terrell said.
But Michael Aquaro, Bon Appétit district manager, said he has never received a complaint about a student employee in his years at Duke.
Bon Appétit management, however, does not always see eye-to-eye with Duke employees.
As the culinary arm of a multimillion dollar business, Bon Appétit does not have the perspective of employees who have worked at Duke for decades, said Michael Gibson, general manager of Local 77.
He added that he believes in shared responsibility for both complaints and praise among workers, students and management. He noted that past coverage by The Chronicle has unfairly blamed union workers for dining problems.
“If something goes bad, we need to be held accountable,” he said. “If something goes well, we need to share in whatever it is.”
Misunderstandings on both sides
Although criticism is frequent in the survey results, Wulforst said the majority of students and employees relate well with each another.
“I think ‘the relationship is strained’ is more of an exception than the rule,” he said. “Many of our folks are loved by the students and vice versa, but I do think we have some who don’t always exhibit the best behavior.”
Vernessa Harrington, a Marketplace employee of 14 years, said she has seen both students and employees disrespect one another.
“I usually tell [employees] to just walk away and don’t say anything,” she said. “If it wasn’t for [the students], we’d have no jobs.”
Employees like Kurrell Rice believe their service is well received by students.
“Students love us—I think they like us more here [at Subway] than anywhere else,” said Rice, who has worked at Subway for the past four years. “We just try to move as fast as possible and still give good customer service.”
Poor relations usually result from chance encounters when either students or employees are simply “having a bad day,” said Alpine Bagels Supervisor Mary Jackson-Hopkins. Alpine Bagels also received both positive and negative reviews in the survey.
Wulforst said perceived socioeconomic differences between students and workers probably play some role in their strained relations.
“It’s partially a cultural thing,” he said. “When you’re only making $35,000 per year and standing on your feet all day, it can be hard to be friendly and say, ‘How are you doing?’”
According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau data, the median household income in Durham is less than the cost of one year at Duke. Additionally, 21.6 percent of students come from families that make more than $300,000 a year, according to self-reported senior survey data compiled by the Office of Institutional Research from 2007 to 2009. But Wulforst said the situation is not that simple.
“We are not an institution of rich kids,” Wulforst said, adding that about 40 percent of students receive need-based financial aid. “If that is [the employees’] perception, we need to make sure we convey that is not true.”
Although the stereotype exists, Gibson agreed that Duke is not characterized by an elite class of students.
Hire... and fire?
The Refectory was one of the few dining locations that received only positive comments.
Laura Hall, owner of Bon Vivant Catering, which operates The Refectory, attributes the restaurant’s success to dedicated employees who are focused on customer service, and to her ability to replace unsatisfactory employees.
“If people don’t work, we let them go and we let them go fast,” she said. “Often they say, ‘I didn’t know it would be that hard.’ We need people who love it and who get it.”
Independent vendors like The Refectory have the freedom to hire and fire at will. Union employees, on the other hand, enjoy greater job security.
“[Union workers] do not see the customer as the one who is paying their salaries,” Hall said. “They are not focused on the customer who walks through the door.”
Harrington said the managers at The Marketplace do maintain order in the eateries and emphasize that “the students are always right”—sometimes to the chagrin of employees.
Although union protection of employees can reduce the accountability of some workers, it exists to protect employees.
Formal complaints, though rare, are issued from both sides. If a student experiences poor service, administrators deal with the issue immediately, Wulforst said. According to Duke Dining’s disciplinary protocol, administrators and the affected student meet together after the incident.
Usually, the union then files a grievance, which becomes problematic because the next step requires students to directly participate in the process, Aquaro said.
“Students are not here to help correct behavior problems on the part of our employees, should they occur,” he said. “Unfortunately for us, it’s next to impossible to take disciplinary actions because we don’t want to involve the students.”
He recalls only two occasions when students were willing to take part, although both situations were resolved before students became directly involved.
Improving relations
Over the years, Dining Services has implemented several programs to improve the relations between students and workers, such as recruiting students to work side by side with employees during Midnight Breakfasts, though many efforts have fallen through, Wulforst said.
“I think relations have gotten better over the last three years I have been at Duke,” an anonymous student wrote in the survey. “It’s nice to see improvements in qualities of food, varieties of options available and service.”
Terrell said the union engages in customer service training for full-time employees, and relations between students and employees should not be taken lightly.
“We take our jobs seriously,” she said. “Our full-time workers have a household to look after. It’s our livelihood.”
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