Dining issue serves up a lesson

The profitable SIUC dining services have attracted interest from companies that would love to take the responsibility of feeding thousands of students ˘ and the profit from it ˘ off the University's hands.

And during this time of financial crises, even the Budget Task Force has mentioned the possibility of contracting out dining services as a way of saving the University money.

With the threat of 100 employees losing their jobs or having to do the same work for less money, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has been fighting the possibility of its services coming to an end at SIUC.

It also had many employees, such as Gary Beasley, a cook≠s helper, and his wife, who have both worked for dining services for 10 years, worried about their livelihood.

But those worries were eased Friday as Larry Dietz, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment, announced the University would not be contracting out dining services.

The news came as a relief to dining workers and other civil service workers alike, who were worried the administration was trying to oust the unions on campus. But some fear remains about the janitorial and grounds keeping staff, whose jobs are still scheduled to be reviewed by the Budget Task Force.

While we understand their fear and certainly the hardship that comes from losing employment, we support the University≠s attempts to look high and low for cost-cutting solutions to our budget problems.

The AFSCME union members and their president, Elaine Broomfield, have complained the administration is using budget problems as an excuse to "bust the unions on campus."

We simply don't think so. Instead, we believe the University has been dealt a series of blows to the budget and is looking to reduce costs without reducing quality.

In this case, the administration found there was no need to outsource the dining service staff because students are happy with the services they provide.

As long as the dining service employees keep working hard to provide a quality service and product to the students in the residence halls and can do so at a reasonable price, there will be no reason to outsource their jobs.

Let this be a lesson to all campus employees.

The University is looking into ways to cut costs with out cutting quality. So, as long as every employee is pulling his or her weight and making a positive impact on the University community at a competitive price, there need be little worry of losing employment.

Copyright 2009 - Daily Egyptian