Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Cash Flow Cyber...

It's been an ongoing issue, but at the last RSA meeting as well as Monday's SGA meeting; the changes in the Cyber were brought up.

What some may not know, the Cyber was designed with a focus on being a cash flow service - meaning not for heavy use of meal exchange. But students have been using the Cyber for meal exchange when they should be going to the dining hall.

Amy Preston and other executive board members of Resident Student Association met with Chartwells a few weeks ago to discuss these issues. As RSA representative at the SGA meeting, Preston informed attendees that Chartwells wants to reduce traffic to the Cyber and encourage people to go to the dining hall for meal exchanges. To this effect, that is why there is now a limit of 2 meal exchange transactions at one time at the Cyber.

Preston also mentioned that Chartwells employees at the Cyber were having to stay until midnight cleaning up - and that wasn't a part of their job description. As a result, hot food service has been changed to end at 9:30 PM (while closing is at 10 PM) to allow more time to close up.

At the RSA meeting, an executive board member said that the clean-up crew was behind on their duties because security was kicking them out - due to staying two hours more past closing time.

With all the changes, it's hard to keep up with what can be ordered on meal exchange and what can't be. The chicken caesar salad and outtake sandwiches were on meal exchange, but then they weren't. They may be back on meal exchange, I don't know, but I feel it could just as easily get shifted around the next day with the way things have been working. I'm glad that the pizzas and subs allowed on meal exchange are clearly labelled. I understand the supreme pizza not being allowed on meal exchange (with all the ingredients on it), but I usually order that and have found myself ordering something different or just going to the dining hall.

I understand the need to encourage meal exchange use in the dining hall - that's what it's primarily there for, but you never know what to expect there. Even with the buffet selection, some days the food choices are not worth a meal exchange. For example, today I only grabbed dessert from the dining hall before heading to the Cyber for dinner. Nothing else was worth getting.

What you might not know:
A little over half of the money made in the Cyber goes back to Dominican (out of $10, only $4.50 goes to Chartwells).

Monday, March 2, 2009

Peace vs. Hate..."The Laramie Project" Demonstrations.

Students, faculty and staff members of Dominican University gathered hand in hand, forming a human peace sign on Sunday, March 1. The demonstration was successful in overcoming the powerful hate messages from members of the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church. The extremist picketers stood on Division Street as they protested DU's production of "The Laramie Project," a play based on the real-life aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual college student from Wyoming.

Watch this video to see video coverage from the protest and counter-protest.