In response to President David Skorton’s call for each department to reduce costs by 10 percent, the Cornell Dining Office has adopted numerous cost-saving measures to tighten their belt for the fiscal year 2009-2010. In carrying out their proposed changes, beginning with a plan for a five-percent cost reduction that was implemented on July 1, 2009, Cornell Dining faces the challenge of furthering sustainability practices at dining locations, minimizing costs to meet budget cuts and safeguarding students’ interests.

In fall 2008, Gail Finan, director of Cornell Dining and Retail Services, hired Kaizen, a business consulting group, to evaluate the operations of all dining units under the Dining Office and develop short-term strategic initiatives as well as long-term master plan recommendations.

Following Kaizen’s suggestions, Cornell Dining shut down the Alfalfa Room in Warren Hall, Ciabatta’s in the Park in the Cornell Business and Technology Park by the Ithaca Airport and Tower Café in Uris Library, resulting in a savings of more than $50,000.

Cornell Dining’s expenses consist of labor costs, cost of goods to provide quality food offerings, utilities and the maintenance of Cornell Dining’s facilities. Additional cost pressures this year stem from the increase in Cornell Dining’s payment to the University for infrastructural services by 13 percent as well as making Flora Rose House on West Campus a fully operating dining room after its integration into the West Campus House System this semester.

In spring 2009, Finan met with the West Campus House System Council, the five house professors and the house assistant deans to discuss changes to be made on west campus. Finan sent out an e-mail to inform West Campus residents who would be returning the following year of these changes:

According to Richard Anderson, the assistant director of Cornell Dining, “Few students eat breakfasts and lunches on West Campus. Dinners are the more important meals on west campus. If we have to make cuts, it would be breakfasts and lunches. Cornell Dining is constantly looking for opportunities to cut costs and use our resources more fully while maintaining the highest quality of service. We want to provide services that the students are utilizing.

“In fact, now that we have added Friday and Saturday dinners, weekend brunches and weekday continental breakfasts in Flora Rose House, we have expanded rather than reduced our services.”

In addition to adjusting dining hours according to student traffic patterns, Cornell Dining has also implemented cost-saving measures that are in line with the goals of a more sustainable environment and the newly instituted University-wide staffing policies — the Staff Retirement Initiative (SRI) and the external hiring pause. These changes have been taking place across all dining facilities on campus.

Karen Brown, marketing and communications director of the Campus Life Office, said, “Cornell Dining has a commitment to the purchase of local, regional and New York State food products [that total around 20 percent of all purchase]. Local and regional food purchasing is a careful balance of environmental and fiscal responsibility for us.”

Sometimes sustainability advancements have to give way to profitable business operations. “There are students constantly campaigning for us to take bottled water out of retail locations on campus,” Alex Latella ’10, chair of the Dining Committee on Student Assembly, said. “But we are making good business with the bottled waters.”

In terms of staffing, Cornell Dining has opted to cut the hours of full-time workers, who are paid $14 per hour, and replace them with the hours of student workers, who are paid $8 per hour.

As to whether Cornell Dining has managed to maintain the quality of its products while striving to balance its budgets, students share mixed reviews.

“This year I am coming back to West Campus for lunch more often so it has become a little more inconvenient for me,” said Charlene Chan ’11, a returning Keeton House resident, commenting on the removal of lunch services at Keeton. “Food has been better at Keeton, though. There’s definitely more variety.”

The changes in West Campus dining options were announced after the in-house lottery took place in the west campus houses in fall 2008. While no evidence suggests that Cornell Dining had any more foreknowledge of these changes than the students did at the time, returning residents nonetheless believe that they should have been given the chance to reconsider their living arrangements. Unlike students living on North, West Campus residents are bound by their housing contract to purchase a house meal plan.

Besides enhancing food options in all west campus dining rooms, Cornell Dining added more BRBs to all of the house meal plans this year. However, students also had to pay higher house meal plan prices in exchange for this compensation.

West Campus is in a unique situation in that Cornell Dining is in close partnership with the house professors, who make major decisions regarding the operation of each house. On the one hand, Cornell Dining faces pressure to cut costs. On the other hand, Cornell Dining faces pressure from the house professors to do so in a way that will not undermine the vision of the house system.

“Dining is a pretty integral part of the West Campus house system,” said Prof. Ross Brann, near eastern studies and house professor of Alice Cook House and Co-Chair of the West Campus House System Council. “We meant for the houses to be small places where students can get to know each other around the dinner table. Since students might prefer foods prepared by the different house chefs, part of our original intention is to mix students from different houses through dining. Even with these changes in place, we are still achieving that goal. But once the University passes these difficult times, we expect all five dining rooms to be reopened [to their original servicing hours].”

Other than the quality, whether cost-saving measures would impede the fulfillment of the promises of the west campus house system remains a point of contention among staff and students. “Last year, you’ll always see familiar faces in the dining hall even if you have never talked to them before,” said Ethan Stephenson, house assistant dean of Keeton. “Maybe this year, with students moving around different dining rooms, students can develop a house system identity. One of the concerns I have is that it will be more challenging for students joining the house system this year, especially in Keeton, Becker and Flora Rose, to foster a house identity.”

Eli Luxenberg ’11, student assistant and returning resident of Alice Cook House, questioned whether the University could achieve the envisioned goals for the West Campus housing system with the recent budget cuts.