Open Letter from Dining Services
Kat Laufenberg | November 8, 2023
As the Crew Supervisor of Dining Services here on campus, I enjoy seeing and interacting with many campus community members throughout my workday. It’s one of the big reasons I decided to work for Sodexo when I moved back to this area in August of 2022.
As a WWC alum myself, I was eager to reconnect and be a part of the larger campus community again and I don’t regret my decision in the slightest. That being said, there are some things we need to think about collectively and (hopefully) endeavor to improve.
This past week, a student came into Gladfelter Cafeteria with another student’s ID card. A little context: this person is on the meal plan and had their own ID to swipe for entry, but they didn’t feel like returning to their dorm to get it. When one of our staff members refused to let this student into the cafeteria, the student retorted, “You’re just a lunch lady, your job isn’t that f***ing serious.”
It goes without saying that this was rude, over-the-top, and uncalled for. However, the first thing that really stood out to me was the clear elitism and classism inherent in such a statement. It definitely wasn’t something I expected to hear from a Warren Wilson student, regardless of how frustrated and inconvenienced they felt at the moment.
My secondary reaction was one of indignation. How dare this student think my coworkers and I are “just” anything! The staff at Dining Services have a wide range of accomplishments and life experiences. It’s an awful lot to assume about a person just because they are working a shift as a cashier in a cafeteria.
Take me, for example – I graduated from WWC with a double major and minor with a 3.9 GPA and was a Gilman Scholar and Golden Key International Honour Society member. I lived and worked in China for two years as a Foreign Cultural Expert, giving bilingual lectures on the importance of international and intercultural education. I worked as a Policy Researcher for the Biden 2020 campaign. I spent time in both the corporate and start-up worlds, doing supply chain management for multi-million-dollar businesses.
Having eclectic and extensive experiences makes me a better Crew Supervisor. All of this to say: don’t jump to conclusions about people based on their current work or workplace.
It isn’t just the staff, either. Some of the BIPOC Dining Crew workers have told me about being treated poorly by fellow students – in one such instance, a fellow student mistook them for a janitor and tried to order them – rudely – to clean up a mess they made deliberately. I have been trying to address this with the WIDE Office and others on campus, but there is only so much that can be done from our end.
After the incident last spring, when a custodial worker quit due to “repeated instances of underappreciation, ignorance, bigotry and abuse,” as reported in The Echo, I had hoped that our larger campus community would more deeply examine and discuss the way service workers on campus are being treated.
Myself and others with Dining Services have tried to envision a WWC that does things differently: bringing back Heavy-Duty Crew so we are not the only large work crew cleaning up other students’ messes, first-year students all being assigned to work crews that serve the campus community directly (Dining, Landscaping, etc.)
I do not personally know what the solution is. I do know that we need an active effort on campus to combat mentalities that lead to inconsiderate and rude treatment.
There is no easy solution to a systemic issue. But in the meantime, I thought a plea to the community at large might be a good starting point. Myself and my coworkers at Dining Services are so thankful to be a part of this campus community. We are here from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. every day to ensure students have access to three square meals so that our students can focus on the demands of a college education.
Help us help all of you by fostering an environment of courtesy and mutual respect.