Community Council update: Council Discusses seating in dining halls and jobs

On March 21, the Community Council met to discuss student seating in the dining halls along with the College recruitment policy.

Sufficient seating in the dining halls has become a problem recently, particularly during the peak lunch hours of 12:15 to 1:30 at Proctor. Many students find themselves unable to secure seating at a table and end up sitting on the floor.

The Redfield Proctor Dining Hall, which is located in a separate room on the second floor of Proctor, is currently reserved as a staff and faculty dining space during lunch. It holds around 100 people, though only 15 to 25 people use it daily. The availability of this space to students would alleviate some of the seating pressures, the Council found. Furthermore, the opening of Redfield could also help encourage students to keep the dishes in the dining halls as many students leave the dining hall with their food when they cannot find a place to sit.

The Council recognized that this could be a sensitive issue for faculty and staff members who value their own dining space. When Redfield Proctor was created, however, there were more dining halls, so the pressure on individual dining halls was not as strong. The Council suggested reserving certain tables or roping off a section of the dining hall for faculty and staff only. This would allow the space to be shared while still respecting the privacy of all parties. Another suggestion was to limit the time that students could use Redfield Proctor to the peak hours of 12:15 to 1:30 so the room could still be used as a meeting space by faculty and staff when there was not a high demand for seating space.

By opening Redfield Proctor to students at least through the end of the semester, the seating issue could be temporarily resolved while the College looks for a more permanent solution.

The Council also reviewed the College’s job recruitment policy. The policy asks recruiters to sign a non-discrimination policy and requires those who do not sign this policy to provide an open meeting and explain their recruitment policy. The U.S. military, for example, could not sign the non-discrimination policy because of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell legislation which outlawed gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. However, following of the 2006 Rumsfeld vs. FAIR Supreme Court case, the College must allow military recruiters on campus if it wishes to receive federal money. The College, therefore, had language in the recruitment policy requesting that the military hold an open meeting, but would not require it. The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell changes the military’s ability to sign the non-discrimination policy, which makes the military specific language in the recruitment policy unnecessary.

The Council discussed how this language should be revised in light of new military policy. The open meetings allow recruiters who cannot sign the non-discrimination policy, such as religious organizations or gender specific organizations, to still come to the College and explain why their policies allow for discrimination. The meetings also ensure that all opportunities are available for Middlebury students.

“It should be as easy as possible for recruiters to come to Middlebury,” said SGA President Riley O’Rourke ’12.

The next Community Council meeting will be held on April 5, and the topic of review will be several of the academic interest houses and the social houses.