Earlier this year, hall staff in 1837 repeatedly found large messes left in their kitchen. But when they tried to solve the problem by locking away the dishes, residents broke the lock.
“I replenish dishes in the Golden Pears every fall and purchase cleaning supplies, so I was in there,” said Director of Residential Life Rene Davis. “I saw that [the cabinet] was open.” She asked a student nearby how people were breaking into the cabinet.
Wedging her OneCard between the lock, the student showed her. “I just laughed,” Davis recalled.
Rather than change the locks again, Residential Life has now locked seven of the dorm kitchens on campus for open use and reservations. Continental breakfast and M&Cs will continue to be served.
Three years ago, Davis noticed more residents leaving spilled food and unwashed dishes behind in some of the Golden Pear kitchens. (They are called Golden Pears in homage to the original Wilder kitchen’s wallpaper.)
“Before we opened the new hall, we were concerned about the way the students were cooking,” she said. “But the volume was a bit lower, so we worked with housekeeping, paying them extra to clean.”
The following year, Residential Life created six or seven student jobs to solve the problem. Student workers, called Golden Pear Kitchen Aids, were tasked with cleaning the kitchens each Wednesday and Saturday. Their goal was to “make it sanitary but not clean up after people,” said Davis.
The students who took those jobs in the fall of 2008 were responsible for mopping the floors, running the dishwasher, cleaning the stove and oven, and wiping away any spills or mold.
“Even when we did that, the more we cleaned, the messier the spaces became,” said Davis. “Students knew the positions existed, so they stopped cleaning as much as they had before.” The aids also tended not to clean during finals, she added. “It was one of those positions where if you called out two or three days, the Golden Pears would go two to three weeks without cleaning.”
This year, the department cut those jobs and began compensating Hall Presidents and Student Advisors for their help with cleaning the kitchens. According to Davis, the hall staff were held to higher standards of accountability than the kitchen aids.
“But once again, the more we cleaned, the messier things got. Only this semester, we noticed more biohazards.”
Mead Hall President Karen Labrie ’10 is working for Residential Life for the third year in a row, and she was one of the hall staff who offered to help clean the kitchens this year.
“A few wonderful and brave residents also volunteered their time to help us clean,” she said in an e-mail.
In the course of cleaning, Labrie recalls “a never-ending pile of unwashed dishes in the sink, crumbs and some sort of goo on every surface, rotten food in the refrigerator, a stench that flooded the first floor of the dorm, and an unhealthy amount of fruit flies.”
The Mead hall staff decided to lock the cookware away last fall. “Unfortunately, students managed to break into the locked cabinets, leaving an even larger mess to clean up.” For that reason, Labrie added, Residential Life closed the kitchen for the rest of the semester.
Davis found a raw chicken in one of the freezers and congealed pasta sauce on the silverware in some of the dorms. She also says that the number of accidental fire alarms has increased due to pots being left on the stoves.
Last December, a health inspector from the South Hadley Board of Health warned that if the kitchens do not meet health code requirements in the future, they could lose continental breakfast.
“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Davis. “I feel that continental breakfast is what makes Mount Holyoke special. To lose that would be taking it a little too far.”
Labrie stressed that the problems would not go away unless students changed their behavior. “There are many different approaches on how the Golden Pear kitchens can be managed, but until students start taking accountability for the messes they make, the Golden Pear kitchens will be a constant issue. I strongly encourage all students that do respect this campus’ common spaces to really step-up in their community and motivate others to do the same.”
Related posts:
- Safford microwave misuse leads to mass confiscation
- Mead gets a face-lift with summer renovations
- Read Between the Lines: Dear Egg Girl
- Buckland break-in raises concern
- Letter to the Editor
