Letter to the Editor: Weiss advocates for Dining Services change through petition

Dear Luther folk
of every sort:
student, staff and teacher--
and all other mouths concerned
o’er Dining Service’ features

In numbers lies
the strength we need
before it is too late.
Click here to add your name, too,
if you care who serves your plate.

The time has come,
the bell has rung,
it’s now to raise a voice
To tell the local shakers
that Sodexo’s not our choice.

Sodexo has been at Luther a year now. Sure, some people are okay with it, but I see on the comment board and overhear significant numbers of conversations voicing continued disapproval of the Dining Services as they are this year. The contract has been renewed...with no input from students, faculty or staff. A survey was run, though I have heard of no plans for the results to be published in their entirety for public viewing; that data certainly had no role to play in the contract renewal. The Administration is so entirely disinterested in having serious conversation that there was pressure to remove me from Food Council simply because I didn’t toe the party line.

Here, at the end of the semester, is a final chance to try and tip the scale. Are you unhappy with Sodexo’s presence on campus and/or the services they have been providing? Do you want to see if the Luther administration even gives a damn about what the students, faculty and staff feel? I urge all those who are part of our fantastic Luther community to visit http://tinyurl.com/ConcernedMouths, read the petition and add your name to the (growing) list. What happens now affects the college for years to come.

Ben Weiss (‘10)
teinesa@gmail.com