Biette spares Midnight Breakfast

Author: Michelle Constant

Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette announced on Dec. 3 that the annual exam-period tradition of Midnight Breakfast would continue after delivering an ultimatum to students the previous week to return missing dishes. The decision came after a forum led by Biette on Nov. 30 to discuss recent dining-related issues with concerned students, but it also validated the skepticism among students about the sincerity of the threat.

Approximately a dozen students joined Biette in Proctor Hall to discuss the removal of trays, no juice at night, budgets, dishes, takeout containers, the meal plan and, most extensively, Midnight Breakfast. While Biette ultimately decided to keep Midnight Breakfast within days of the forum, the debate highlighted dining tensions that have been boiling for some time.

According to Biette, a greater number of items have disappeared from the dining halls this semester than in the past.

"This semester has been horrendous," said Biette. "There may be a generational piece to this."

Last Friday's meeting was prompted by a campus-wide e-mail from Biette on Nov. 16 warning students that unless a significant number of pieces of china, glass, silver and coffee cups were returned, the ever-popular Midnight Breakfast would be limited to donuts and coffee this semester. Biette continued to explain that if an overwhelming number of items were returned, hot foods would be served on the Monday and Wednesday nights of finals week. Because Midnight Breakfast carries a $17,000-$18,000 price tag, offering a more limited menu would serve to cut costs.

"I am very disappointed because [Midnight Breakfast] makes finals week more enjoyable. We have something to look forward to every night," said George Baumann '08. "I don't think enough students know what is going on, so they are not inclined to do anything about it."

According to Biette, many students were concerned that the community would suffer at the hands of a few individuals who fail to return dishes to the dining halls.

"Students did not feel that all those who 'do good' should be punished," said Biette.

Students at the forum suggested a number of ways to combat dish removal, such as Midnight Breakfast without dishes or offering no glasses or cups at dining halls, as was the policy of the College years ago. Students considered not allowing plates to exit dining room doors, which would prevent students from eating on patios or in the woodstove lounge in Proctor Dining Hall. However, no finite decision was reached on how to prevent students from taking an increasing number of plates from the dining halls.

"We didn't see enough returns of dishes to take the only donuts menu off the table," wrote Biette in an e-mail, "But, as it will be my employees that will bear the brunt of the disappointment, we felt it better to work the situation differently. We certainly don't need a food fight or hostilities."

Some students supported Biette's encouragement for students to return dishes.

"We need to take the responsibility to return the dishes to the dining halls if we want to keep this privilege," said Valerie Weed '08.

According to Biette, the College is a community that must work together in order to continually move forward. He wants the dining halls to give students a feeling of a surrogate family dining room, hence the open system of allowing students to enter and exit an unlimited number of times per day.

"We want the dining halls to be inclusive, homey, residential places to be," said Biette. "We try to buy great quality ingredients to get you a good quality food at a price we can afford."

Biette says that in addition to the suites and special houses that stock themselves with dining hall dishes, he has found a cup inside a planter near Freeman International Center (FIC), a coffee mug on a windowsill and a number of china plates from the College on sale at a local thrift store.

Biette said that he has a budget of approximately $2.1 million for dining hall food and accessories for the school year. He thinks that many students do not understand the reality of a finite budget. This budget has become increasingly difficult to work with as a result of such a large number of missing items. According to Biette, 60 new cases of coffee cups - each holding three dozen cups - disappeared entirely within a week. This resulted in a loss of 2,160 cups, or about $2,160 in seven days' time.

The budget for dishes, glasses and silverware is $42,750. With the necessity of more frequent replacements of items, something in the system has to give. Biette could buy an entire new set of items with the $46,000 that goes towards granola each academic year, though this would surely result in a negative response from students.

"Why spend that extra money if it is not appreciated," questioned Biette, "if there is no sense that we are all doing this together? We share the loss - we share the win."

Many students have asked Biette why there are not paper "to-go" cups. He responded that as a residential college with long dining hall hours, students are expected to eat within the dining halls. Further, he pointed to the opposition this would present to the environmentally friendly atmosphere of the College.

Next semester, Biette intends to distribute 2,000 insulated mugs, hoping that this will decrease the trend of the migration of coffee cups out of the dining halls.

Biette said that some students have returned bags full of items. However, it is difficult to convince the community to peer pressure people in their living quarters to contribute to the return of these items.

"If Midnight Breakfast is this easy to save - why not do it?" asked Biette.