The recent events at Brittain Dining Hall have highlighted both problems with food service provider Sodexo’s attitude towards the quality of the service and the entire attitude of Sodexo towards the student body. Granted, Brittain faces many challenges that a typical dining facility does not. Though Brittain is designed to have a capacity to serve 10,000 meals a day, a recent count puts the actual number of meals served at closer to 22,000. And even though Brittain failed the initial inspection, two weeks later, its score rose to 89, only a few points less than the eateries in the Student Center, which typically score in the low 90s.
Still, this improvement does not excuse the fact that without the intervention of the health department, Sodexo failed to meet even the barest minimum government standards. Sodexo has a reputation for both subpar service and labor issues at schools nationwide, which have led to protests, boycotts and strikes at at least nine other universities. On campus, the poor quality of Sodexo’s food and service is so well-known that Tech’s food has become a popular target of criticism.
Though the lion’s share of the blame for this lies with Sodexo for its failure to provide adequate services, Tech is certainly not free of fault. Tech takes pride in holding itself to a higher standard. Tech has the means to pressure Sodexo into improving service, yet has remained complacent with the status quo.
This complacency needs to change. The Institute must reevaluate every part of its relationship with Sodexo, up to and including terminating its current contract. Tech students should not have to endure subpar food and cleanliness so long as Tech has any means of forcing companies it partners with to raise its standards to meet its own. Failure to correct this misguided course will only further link Tech to its unclean corporate partner.
Consensus: Dining in disgust
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