Little Things Add Up
Comments(2)
I was thinking about the theory proposed in an earlier post, about a bunch of little complaints adding up. It is so true. In general, when anyone asks what I think of Babson, I tell them I absolutely hate the place. But when I think about it, there isn’t a big, universal reason for that. It’s just a ton of little things that seem to ruin everything.
For example, let’s think about Trim Dining Hall. It’s pretty good – a fairly wide selection of food that is usually edible. But there are just so many things that screw it up. Let’s look at them right now…
- The hours. Some people wake up before 11 am on the weekends. And if I’m not mistaken, some of them might just want to eat breakfast.
- The “all you can eat” lie. For the cost of the platinum meal plan (which is basically $8.50 per meal, the price non-students get charged) you get unlimited entry to Trim hall. But only during certain hours. Any they usually try to stop you from taking food out with you. To top it off, they are serving certain portions this year. I just don’t see the value. (although I do enjoy not having to cook for myself all the time)
- Servers. No longer can you go to the buffet line and pick out the foods you want in the portions you want. The servers dish out what the managers tell them to. Then they have the nerve to put up signs at the exit saying “if there is still food on your plate, you took too much!” I paid for “all you can eat,” so I’ll take what I want, thank you.
- Lines. There is an extra step in getting your food now, as I just mentioned. This slows things down considerably. And for what benefit?
- The food quality survey. Last year they decided to dish out worse food at the beginning of the year because, according to some survey, students care less about food quality at the beginning of the year. But instead of having higher-than-normal quality food later in the semester, they kept the low-quality stuff to save money.
- Water. I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing that water is one of the more popular drinks in Trim. But now there is only one area with a water dispenser, resulting in a long line in one spot. And that spot happens to be in the middle of one of the main walkways.
- Backpacks. It is a school policy that you are allowed to take your bag down into Trim with you. It’s there to prevent laptop theft, just ask ITSD about this. But you may get hassled by Sodexho if you have your bag. They are worried that someone may walk off with a spoon. (Don’t worry Sodexho, as long as the silverware is as dirty as usual, no one would want to take it back to their room.)
- Getting run over. I’m not going to name names, but there is one employee who seems to have a game of running into students with his push-cart. I’m assuming it is a way to pass the time. For every unsuspecting freshman he hits, he awards himself one point. Four points if he hits an agile, experienced senior. Bonus points for hitting someone in the face by slinging open the milk dispenser door! If he sets a new weekly record, he probably throws a party.
There’s a list of 8 little things, just for Trim. Next week I’ll do a list some other building…
This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 2:55 pm and is filed under Crap, Crapmaster, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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I totally agree. Babson cuts corners wherever they possible can, and it’s those things that add up to make the overall experience miserable. I mean if Trim was the way it was, but you felt satisfied with everything else at Babson, you would probably be able to overlook Trim (I mean most schools have crappy cafeterias and the students are still happy with their school). But no, it’s just Trim. It’s Babo giving you a parking ticket at 4am AND 5:30am, as if you were going to go move your car in between those hours. Or it’s OCL treating us like absolute garbage. Or it’s one of the million other ways that Babson cuts corners trying to save a buck.
And I think it really does all go back to the whole alumni donation discussion. Babson thinks that alumni donations will allow them to stop cutting corners, and it’s our fault for not donating. But really it’s the other way around. They have to stop cutting corners and screwing us before we’re going to donate, so they need to look in the mirror. I mean hello, we’re a business school, I think we should be able to find some creative ways to get funding at least temporarily to stop cutting corners. And then the donations can come in once you provide a better environment for your “customers.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the phrase is, “If you build it, they will come.” It’s not the other way around, so start building already.
I also wanted to mention my dislike for Trim, as well. Although I have a kitchen so I cook all the time and only go to Trim maybe twice a week tops. But still, I hate going to Trim. I get there for lunch and wait in a huge line just to go into Trim. Then I have to stand in a good 20-minute line to get a friggin sandwich because everyone needs to get their sandwich toasted (here’s an idea, put the toasting machine out on the floor somewhere and let them toast their sandwiches themselves…you’d think they never heard of the concept of a bottleneck at Babson). If I want anything from the regular food line, it’s another wait because nobody wants to grab a plate of food that’s been dished out already and sitting there for 20 minutes, so you have to get the servers to make you a plate. And they suck at it. I ask for chicken nuggets and they give me like 3 nuggets. What the hell am I going to do with 3 nuggets? And besides, there’s no need to interact with the servers, half of which don’t speak good english. It makes it a hassle to get food, which I guess is what they want because this way they’re not spending money since we’re not eating their food, right? There’s the cue to start reading the first paragraph again.
Were all these changes by accident? Nope. Trim is managed and operated by Sodexho, a for profit company. The trend across all campus foodservice programs is that campus managed facilities (as opposed to external for profit forces) exceed their Sodexho competitors in terms of customer (student) satisfaction, by a large margin. You get a shiny new looking dining hall, they get a new system to cut food costs and create disgrunted customers (like me) who don’t return to trim, yet the get to keep my meal plan money. Think about that. What is the marginal cost for my entire suite of guys who never ever visit trim (and by never I mean never)? Absolutely nothing, marginal revenue? $10,000+ annually.
Unfortunately there is not an easy solution to this, as it would be incredibly difficult and inefficient for the college to switch back to self-operated food service and bringing in an alternative vendor would just lead to the same problem.
The only solutions I can think of:
-Allowing students to opt out of the meal plan (which would obliterate the unearned revenue they currently receive from students who don’t go, forcing them to increase quality)…I mean they do have an unfair monopoly.
-Allow fair competition. I would make the investment in establishing another food option on campus (one that was open late and high quality and all that fun stuff) if Sodexho did not have an exclusive foodservice contract on campus it would be possible.