Sophomore Libby Whiting did not customize her pasta Wednesday evening. Once she had reached the front of the line for Mangia, the Italian option at the Restaurants at Woodland, she learned Pasta da Vinci had been replaced by five signature bowls.
As this was Whiting’s first time at the Forest Quad dining area this semester, she did not witness the lines on the first day of classes, when Woodland saw almost 7,000 transactions.
“We always expect it,” Woodland Dining Manager Linda McCoy said. “But we don’t have the staff to cover that.”
While a full staff ranges from 180 to 200 people, just more than a quarter of that had been hired by Aug. 22. Many more student employees waited in the processing stage, but there weren’t enough on the floor.
To make matters more difficult, very few of the hired staff wanted to work that hectic first day.
Because of the shortage, Woodland Assistant Manager Albana Rrashi helped at Romaine for the whole first week.
“It’s like when you’re at home and you have those big dinners,” she said. “Unless everybody helps, one person is never going to make everything in time.”
Since then, Woodland has hired more students, lines have diminished and various options have opened more frequently. However, the dining hall is not operating identically to last year, and McCoy said they will likely still close some food options here and there during the coming month.
“We’re not getting students coming to us and wanting to work as much,” McCoy said. “We just have to get through this and get our students hired. We’re almost there.”
By “there,” she means the full level of staffing Woodland has achieved in past years.
In fall 2013, the dining hall’s late soft opening and modified hours combined with the excitement of a new dining option.
“There were long lines,” McCoy said. “But no one cared.”
After the 2014 New Student Orientation, Woodland enjoyed an abundance of applications because of its early exposure to new students.
As the fall 2015 semester began, about 30 students who had signed on for the Bookmark[et] Eatery in Wells Library instead worked at Woodland until the library dining option opened in January 2016.
This August, Woodland was not new for students, did not benefit from NSO exposure and did not have extra staff members.
“For us, it’s still new,” McCoy said of staff who had been there since the beginning. “It’s still like, wow, this is an interesting year. This is different than last year, but in a lot of ways not so much.”
McCoy said the real appeal of the dining hall comes down to the quality of the food. Rrashi said it’s the way everything either prepared that morning or crafted in front of the customer.
“They want it to be fast, and they want everything open every day all the time,” McCoy said. “But it’s like, ‘will you come and work for us?’”
To avoid a rough start to next year, McCoy said she will meet with other dining managers and training coordinators to determine a plan.
“We weren’t the only ones in this position,” she said. “Wright Food Court, even, has not opened all of their concepts.”
In the end, Whiting did not complain about her speedy shells and sauce.
“Yeah, I was so excited,” she said about the notion of the build-your-own dish from last semester. “But it’s OK. I mean, it’s still really good pasta.”
