(Emma G. Schaible / Fourth Estate)

Students focus on variety, time, quality and outreach

BY ISABELLA PEARLSTEIN, STAFF WRITER

George Mason’s Student Culinary Council met Feb. 23 to discuss improvements to campus dining halls. Vice President of Dining Operations Lou Christopher opened the meeting to discuss what “quality and value” means to students, which became the focus of the entire meeting.

Students discussed their opinions on the varieties of food at Southside and Ike’s, discrepancies between the menu boards and foods available, food and utensil quality and student awareness.

The most pressing concerns students had throughout the meeting was food availability during the day and night. The majority of those concerns stemmed from transition times between breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night service at Ike’s. Students mentioned times of not finding certain food items like protein.

One student suggested extending hours of operations for The Spot because they offer more vegan and vegetarian options. The student expressed the importance of extending hours for eateries like The Spot because of dietary restrictions during religious holidays, such as Ramadan.

Sky Robertson, a member of the Undergraduate Representative Body, mentioned lack of labelling or incorrect labelling of food as an issue, saying it has been difficult as someone with a dietary food restriction to identify specific food items such as pork.

Undergraduate Student Body President Jonathan Dubois raised concerns over cups and cutlery within Mason dining halls. 

Tyrone Robeson, director of residential dining, blamed the cloudy appearance of dining hall cups on “a serious hard water problem” at Ike’s.

Dubois described how valuable using dining dollars for retail dining and the Mason Market is for him. Another student said they valued using meal swipe exchanges at The Eaterie.

Near the end of the meeting, the council discussed ways to get the student body more engaged with giving feedback about Mason Dining and ways to reach out and engage with students as a whole.

According to Christopher, the meeting had the biggest turn out he has seen. 

“The biggest thing that I’m walking away with right now is a lot of the issues students have could be solved in the moment if folks would share that feedback in the moment,” Christopher said. “I think it was even difficult for students to come together with what’s the perfect menu.”

Andrew Colasanto, the URB’s dining liaison, said he “was really pleased with the turnout today.” 

“[The Culinary Council] seemed much more open to our personal feedback, especially when it came to a lot of the smaller things like cleanliness. I did appreciate how open they seemed about it compared to the past where they seemed more dismissive,” Colastano said.