SGA legislates Proctor reopening

Author: Erin McCormick

In an effort to reopen Proctor Dining Hall for weekend service, the Student Government Association (SGA) narrowly passed a bill Sunday night to revive Proctor on weekends and question the place of Middlebury Commons Dining at large.

"The passing of this bill is a victory for all students. Whether or not the bill causes change, it has already made a difference. We, as students, are having our voices heard," said Wonnacott Senator Eli Berman '07, the bill's author.

Berman's proposal, which was passed by a vote of six in favor to five opposed, with four abstentions, will now be taken to the President's desk by Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson in an attempt to voice the student body's position on the Proctor closings, according to SGA President Andrew Jacobi '05.

The bill, entitled "Fighting for the Commons System," was first presented to the SGA last week but was thought to be too complex. Some members of SGA wanted the bill to be split in two in order to deal with the Proctor Dining Hall and Commons Dining as separate issues. Berman, however, thought the two issues were inherently interconnected and opted to rework the bill rather than divide it.

The objective of the bill is "to have the administration allocate the necessary resources to keep Proctor open on the weekends, and by doing so, reinforce the formation of the Commons."

If this objective, however, is not achieved by the administration, the bill asks that "Midd Dining" be accepted in favor of the term "Commons Dining" and will force administrators to "question...the future role of the Commons Dining".

"Before it closed [on weekends], Proctor was just the cafeteria on the south side of campus. One consequence of the 'Proctor Push' is that Wonnacott and Brainerd [students] now associate Proctor with their [respective] commons. The bill is a victory for Commons Dining," Berman commented.

Along with the SGA, students fighting to keep Proctor open wrote a petition and collected 575 student signatures. The signed petition, which was presented to the SGA at the meeting, argued that the closing of Proctor on weekends leaves students living in residence halls on the south side of campus - including Stewart, Hepburn, Gifford, Starr, Painter, the mods and a number of the academic and social houses - without any convenient dining options. Further, the petition stated that the closing of Proctor, the unofficial dining hall of Brainerd and Wonnacott, devalues the Commons System with respect to dining.

Even with 575 petition signatures and the SGA's endorsement of Berman's bill, the possibility of Proctor reopening on weekends does not look promising, due primarily to the financial constraints of Dining Services. Hiring employees for a third dining hall on the weekends would cost Dining Services approximately $150,000 per annum, according to a statement from Matthew Biette, director of Dining Services. Biette met with President Ronald D. Liebowitz earlier this week to discuss possible scheduling changes for dining halls in response to the recent cumulative efforts of disgruntled students, but reaffirmed the legitimacy of the College's rationale for opting to shut down Proctor on weekends.

Biette expounded on Dining Services' financial crunch, noting that it would be difficult to find, let alone pay, additional employees to operate three dining halls all week. In response to requests that the College close another facility or institute a rotating schedule on weekends, Biette explained that Ross - by far the most popular dining hall - must stay open for capacity reasons, and that Proctor, with its aging equipment and dubious "magic wall of food," is the logical choice to close.

Biette expressed regret that more could not be done to satisfy the entire student body, but acknowledged the impossibility of this in light of financial constraints and general practicability, and hoped that students would accept such minor inconveniences as are generated by the closing of Proctor and come to appreciate the positive implications of the evolution of Dining Services.

These arguments and the unlikelihood that Proctor will reopen on weekends do not, however, devalue the bill, according to Berman. "SGA does not have the power to enforce the bills it passes. Right now, all signs point to Proctor remaining closed on the weekends. SGA does have the power, however, to express the will of the student body. Brainerd's petition, countless e-mails and this bill do exactly that," Berman added.