[831] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
CSL meeting on dining outcome
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Josiah D. Seale)
Wed Sep 26 04:13:26 2001
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Message-ID: <BLEJJJDGNEIJGAGOJNHNGEGFDEAA.siah@media.mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 00:13:22 -0400
Reply-To: "Documentation at http://web.mit.edu/beland/talk/talk.html"
<MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU>, "Josiah D. Seale" <siah@MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
From: "Josiah D. Seale" <siah@MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
This evening we had a meeting that lasted approximately 2.5 hours, with
around 25 students, Rich Berlin and Phil Walsh.
They seemed to understand the main points by the end of the (at times
heated) discussion.
To summarize that much discussion in a nutshell, the conclusions that they
took away and will make known to Larry Benedict, Phillip Clay and John Curry
(respectively Dean for Student Life, Chancellor and Executive Vice President
of MIT) were the following:
Mandatory dining participation is not acceptable to students for a number of
reasons. The primary reasons include but are not limited to:
a) The cost of the meal plan is prohibitive for many students at MIT, both
students that are beneficiaries of financial aid and students that are not.
b) Cooking at MIT needs to be embraced and supported, since many times
communities form around cooking groups. Balance must be found, however, for
those students who do not wish to cook.
c) The quality and hours of the current food system make it such that
students cannot feel comfortable trusting up front that a quality
improvement will occur occur even if they invest in a meal plan. This trust
must be built up over time.
IMPORTANT:
PLEASE DO NOT send them more bitchy emails enunciating the same points. They
got that much by the end, took notes, and repeated it to us at the end.
PLEASE DO:
a) Send detailed PERSONAL situations (such as your own expenses, why it is
not plausible for you, etc.) to kendallm@mit.edu who will be compiling this
info. We need this info to back us up.
b) Come to the Oct. 3rd and 7th Town Hall meetings. This helps show the
admins that it is useful to use these meetings to distribute information,
and to dialogue not just with elected student reps but with a larger body of
students to whom the issues in question matter. Mental Health will be
discussed as well, so be aware of this.
Thank you very much to all who attended and gave of your valuable time,
input and suggestions. As a personal note, it feels good to me see that more
students actually do care enough to speak out. Please, don't stop!
+>Josiah D. Seale
Co-Chair, UA Committee on Student Life
