Cafeteria cuts work study jobs

Student work positions for the cafeteria will be cut back due to excessive hiring this fall.

With the Sodexo transition, there were several changes for the positions of cafeteria workers, and therefore more students were hired. Next year, Dining Services will down-size in order to revert to the original budget.

“In the beginning of the year, we were unsure how many workers we needed to hire, so we significantly over-hired students,” said Diane Tacke. “We over-hired so significantly that we were $90,000 over the Dining Services budget.”

Although too many workers are on staff, Dining Services iss trying to combat budget difficulties without eliminating current employees. Dining Services’ temporary solution is going to keep the workers they have until the end of the current school year, but will ultimately work on getting back down to the original budget.

“Luther is not saving money by eliminating jobs in Dining Services,” Tacke said. “This is just an attempt to get us back down to budget instead of over-spending significantly as we are now.”

The process of determining which jobs to eliminate is a careful process because work study is important for many students.

“We have discovered that some students are looking for things to do and that’s because it is hard to manage all the workers we have and utilize their services,” Tacke said. “We are removing general student work positions, with student manager positions being one of the only positions not to be dissolved in the cutting process.”

Cuts may have the greatest impact on first year students.

“Right now we are working on where to place first year students with work study, with Financial Aid, and determining the impact on the budget of Dining Services.” Tacke said.

Robert Garret (‘10), a Cafeteria Office worker, has already experienced some of the changes.

“The changes in worker’s hours have been changed to chunks of 3 hour shifts,” said Garret. “Also, there will be no clock person, And also there will be just one student cashier at breakfast,” commented Garrett.

Though these cuts and changes are aimed to be effective, Tacke assured that Dining Services is hoping to be close enough to budget to be able to attain a pool of money to accommodate any significant future problems with the Dining Services budget and student worker positions across campus.

The process of determining which jobs to eliminate is a careful one because work study is important to many students.

“We have discovered that some students are looking for things to do, and that’s because it is hard to manage all the workers we have and utilize their services,” Tacke said. “We are removing general student work positions, with student manager positions being one of the only positions not to be dissolved in the cutting process.”

Cuts may have the greatest impact on first-year students.

“Right now, we are working on where to place first-year students with work study, with Financial Aid and determining the impact on the budget of Dining Services,” Tacke said.

Robert Garret (‘10), a cafeteria office worker, has already experienced some of the changes.

“The changes in worker’s hours have been changed to chunks of three-hour shifts,” said Garret. “Also, there will be no clock person. Also, there will be just one student cashier at breakfast,” Garrett said.

Through these cuts and changes, Tacke is confident that Dining Services will be close enough to budget to maintain a pool of money to accommodate future problems with the Dining Services budget and student worker positions across campus.