Call them the little trays that could.
Despite a formal recommendation to the administration from Student Government Association (SGA) to keep the new International Village trayless, some trays will be available when its dining hall opens this fall, SGA announced in a press release yesterday.
According to the release, the university “has agreed to purchase trays, although in a lesser amount than originally planned” in order to “accommodate those wishing to remove trays from their dining experience.”
SGA President Ryan Fox said he was not sure how many trays will be purchased, but said he believed the number would be related to to the survey responses.
SGA made its recommendation to the administration after conducting an online Food Preferences survey in April. More than 65 percent of students who completed the survey supported going trayless, but critics said the question was biased because it listed only the benefits of removing trays.
Fox, who supported keeping International Village trayless, said he was happy with the compromise.
“I think that it was able to work out really well,” he said. “Initially we were told we would be able to make it trayless-friendly or purchase trays; initially it was not an option to do both. So I think it worked out really well that we could provide both options to students.”
However, Resident Student Association (RSA) Vice President for Housing Services Matt Soleyn, a vocal supporter of keeping trays, said although he was happy that the decision would allow “a student decide for themselves if they want to use a tray or not,” he felt making less trays available might cause more problems.
“The one concern that comes up in my mind is that if you have less trays than usual and you’re not able to meet the demand ... students might get upset,” he said.
In addition to International Village maintaining a number of trays lesser than other campus dining halls, “the Business Office has agreed to replace all open rails in International Village with flat surfaces, particularly at the dish return,” according to the release.
Fox said SGA also plans to educate students about tray usage. He said education will mostly take part in the dining halls themselves by demonstrating the positives and negatives of using trays “in the moment [when a student is considering] picking up a tray.”
“It’s something that we will continue to look at,” he said. “We may explore other possibilities, like trayless days, as more of an educational tool instead of a removing of a service.”
Despite support in April’s survey for going trayless, some students, like Jose Orozco, said they were happy trays would be available in International Village.
“I think it’s good to keep them,” said Orozco, a junior mechanical engineering major. “I use the trays and I think they’re helpful because a lot of times when they give us the plates they’re really hot, and to go from one side to the other side [of the dining hall] you really do need that tray.”
But others, like Nancy Menapace, also a junior mechanical engineering major, said she disagreed with the university’s decision.
“I think it’s good that [SGA is] educating students but I’m of the opinion they just shouldn’t have trays,” she said. “I agree with the point that you use water to wash them and also you’re more apt to take more food and it creates waste. … I think we should do anything we can do to try and help ourselves be green, and also it seems a little ludicrous to me that anyone would really care enough to push back on the right to a tray.”
Trays to be limited in new residence hall
Published: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Updated: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
21 comments
your steamng hot plates to the table, someone will steal the otehr platers you paid for.I love having stuff i paid for stolen.