LC grapples with shortage of staff, surplus of students

During the fall semester, Lewis & Clark has been struggling to fill staff positions in places such as Fields Dining Hall and the mail room. 

Understaffing is not just an LC problem. According to Ryan Jensen, the manager of Bon Appétit, it is very difficult to find workers, especially in the hospitality industry, due to the labor crisis in the United States. 

“We are grateful for our hardworking team, many of them have been here for years and they are all incredibly dedicated to their work,” Jensen said via email. “I think many of them are feeling stressed because a smaller team can impact service.” 

Recently, due to  the understaffing at Bon Appétit, Fields Dining Room has transferred to using paper plates and cups. 

“While our use of paper has temporarily increased, students can dine in the cafe and utilize our dish return area to allow us to continue our post-consumer composting program,” Jensen said.

Joy Mahlalela ’24, who has worked at Fields Dining Hall since last year, said that it is easier for the staff working in the back to deal with paper plates. This has relieved some of the stress that cleaning the dishes was putting on workers. 

While the transition to disposable paper plates and cups has relieved some of the stress, Mahlalela said that in comparison to last year, there is more demand on the students working in the Fields Dining Room. 

“We are understaffed with students as well as actual Bon Appétit workers,” Mahlalela said, “So it has been a lot of pressure having to manage way more than you would.”

According to Mahlalela, the staff working in Fields Dining Hall must be prepared to clean at various times throughout their shift and have to think on their feet and adapt to new roles quickly. For example, student workers have to be ready to change from serving food to cleaning up food relatively fast. Last year, students were only responsible for one task. 

Another place on campus that is struggling with understaffing is the mailroom. Anna Campbell ’22 began working for the mailroom this semester. 

“It does feel understaffed at times, and I’ll get emails, kind of throughout the week, being like ‘Can someone come in today?’ We have a lot going on,” Campbell said. 

According to Campbell there is never any pressure to pick up shifts at the mailroom. Although the lines can get long, Campbell said that she enjoys her work, especially the social aspect and getting to match everyone’s faces with their names. 

The Mail Services Manager, Stephanie Takashima, declined to comment. 

Both Fields Dining Hall and the mailroom have been trying to get students to pick up extra shifts and are currently working to hire more employees to fill the gaps. Jensen and Mahlalela expressed the need for more student workers at the Fields Dining Room. 

“As an incentive for students to join our team, we will soon be rolling out a new program called Bon Appétit Ambassadors that is a resume-building certificate program tucked inside a typical student job with Bon Appétit.” Jensen said. 

Mahlalela mentioned that at her last shift, there were only six people and encouraged more students to apply. 

“Apply at the Bon (because) we actually need people,” Mahlalela said.

Photograph by Hannah Korn