I get hungry on Sundays. No breakfast and a long sermon demand a massive replenishment in the food department. There are grumbles. Jolts. Grunts. It’s time for a trip to the Knorr Family Dining Room for a hearty brunch.
By the time I run over to Knorr, I am hungry enough to eat a real charger. Then I see it — a line. Not just any old “saga” line. This one goes into the dining area and around the corner.
But within seconds, my attitude changes. I’ve dealt with lines like these before. Only the dumb folks stand in lines for those painful minutes of waiting. No, they are probably just missing the second station behind Comforts, which might have recently opened up. I glance around the corner to make my typical, time-cutting maneuver. But the gigantic line breaks off to this station as well. This is something beyond what I had experienced before.
But I am not without options, or so I think. The salad bar must have a shorter line. How can there be a line with so many people clogged up over at Comforts? Alas, the salad line has the same syndrome and worse: a long line and no one at the counter.
I have come to my last resort: a banana. Overcome with hunger, I pop open my banana and succumb to the line that will take over 15 minutes to complete.
Just in front of me, I see Ethan Greb ’19, who has aged wisdom about the mysterious ways of the dining hall. He commented, “In my six years at Hillsdale, I have never seen a line as long as this.”
That’s sad. The longest line in a college generation to start out 2021. What’s the answer to these long lines?
I believe the answer is simple: The dining hall needs more stations open. If, for instance, they were able to open up Passport with made-to-order omelets like they had in the pre-COVID-19 days, a large number of people would probably be attracted to this option and lessen the load at Comforts.
But Bon Appetit doesn’t have enough workers for all the new stations that can no longer be self-serve due to COVID-19 restrictions. That’s why they have posted part-time jobs such as “Dining Services Team Member” and “Ice Cream Server for Knorr” on Handshake. But considering the applications have been up since last semester, it seems the demand for the positions is extremely low.
To solve this problem, Bon Appetit should simply improve starting wages to increase the demand for jobs. The current starting wage of $9.65 — not a cent above the state minimum wage in Michigan — clearly is not enticing many workers. This is a serious issue considering the fact that the unemployment rate is hovering around 6.9% when it was only 3.8% a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Despite relatively low wages, Bon Appetit pays about the same as other part-time jobs on campus. Therefore, maybe some of the unemployed freshmen complaining about waiting in line should get a job with Bon Appetit. It could solve the staffing problem and add some activity to their “empty” schedules.
So don’t tolerate these long lines. Step out of line and get to work.
Josh Newhook is a sophomore studying English and German. He is an assistant editor for the Collegian.