Dining hall going trayless next semester, following national trend

The dining hall is doing away with trays next semester.

The University of Richmond's environmental sustainability committee has approved plans for the E. Bruce Heilman Dining Center to be trayless after a waste audit found the change could save around 714 pounds of food waste a week, according to dining services officials. That equates to about $40,000 a year saved, based on current food prices, out of the dining hall's $2.5 million budget, said Dee Hardy, director of food and auxiliary services.

Trayless dining is also considered helpful in reducing resources and energy used for washing trays, although Richmond's analysis did not include calculations for the amount of water and energy saved by not washing them.

In announcing the initiative Wednesday night before committee members, student government leaders and university officials, chief of staff Lori Schuyler said trays would still be available, but out of plain view. Details of the initiative -- approved by the committee before Thanksgiving Break -- have not been discussed, Hardy said, but officials said they would frequently be evaluating the initiative's progress.

"Going trayless is a big initiative sweeping across the U.S.," Hardy said. "Financial incentives are second to me. It's the 'green' aspect. It's the waste in general."

Additional staff would help keep the tables clean because of spills and other messes that often occur on tables when trays are eliminated, said Hardy, who acknowledged that making the switch would not be initially easy for her staff or the students.

It was not immediately clear when trayless meals would begin, but they could start anywhere from the first day after winter break to sometime around Feb. 1. For much of the semester, the dining hall has eliminated trays on Fridays, a move that led to considerable debate among students, some of whom have said going trayless is unnecessarily inconvenient.

Schuyler's announcement drew sharp criticism Wednesday night from Richmond College Student Government Association and Westhampton College Government Association members, who charged that administrators had rushed to approve the plan without seeking their opinions or other student feedback. Members mostly voiced disapproval with the decision-making process rather than the trayless issue itself.

A contentious exchange between Schuyler and government representatives followed.

Matt Whittaker, the RCSGA president, conducted a straw poll, asking both sets of senators to raise their hands if they would have conducted the approval process differently. Nearly every hand rose.

"The incident is the trayless issue, and we care about the incident because it matters to our ... university community," WCGA president Generra Peck said. "What we're really, truly fired up about though, and want to create some long-term change, is the issue of student representation."

Administrators and student government leaders have braced themselves for widespread student backlash, but much of the plan's criticism has come from faculty and staff members, Hardy said.

Schuyler consistently repeated that trays were not desirable because the study showed eliminating them reduced waste and saved money. She countered that the sustainability committee's student representative -- senior Leah Milazzo -- had given a voice to students.

But Schuyler acknowledged that other committee members and Milazzo -- appointed by the committee -- had not been informed about discussing the trayless issue until they arrived at the meeting, which occurred days before Thanksgiving. Student leaders contended this did not give Milazzo time to seek student opinion or prepare any talking points before the decision was made.

Milazzo was not immediately available for comment.

"I think it would be hard to find a compelling reason to not go trayless when you have food waste of that amount and cost," Schuyler said. "Is there a compelling reason to waste this much food? Having 700 pounds of food waste per week is not going to make us more sustainable."

The trayless decision is part of a larger sustainability package set to be begin next semester to push the university in line with requirements in the Presidential Climate Commitment, a pact signed by President Edward Ayers last year that requires schools to reach climate neutrality as soon as possible. The school's efforts will include energy monitoring in residence halls and a "Recyclemania" challenge.

Going trayless also comes amid a continued rise in food prices, despite the declining cost of fuel in recent weeks. Food shortages, a weak dollar, the official onset of a U.S. recession and the worldwide financial crisis have led industry analysts to project food prices at 6 to 10 percent higher than their current levels, Hardy said.

She said she had already made considerable cuts to her budget, but was being asked to reduce more.

Meanwhile, more college campuses -- including Virginia Tech, Middlebury College, Frostberg State University and San Francisco State University -- have gone trayless. Others are considering the idea.

Government leaders argued the trayless decision illustrated a broader trend by the school officials to approve decisions without adequately soliciting student opinion.

"The university continues to disenfranchise students on a daily basis," said RCSGA senator Brendan Schlauch. "I can't express how angry and frustrated I am with Dr. Ayers."

Schuyler said she thought Ayers would have been surprised with the reaction.

In response, student government representatives have drafted a proposal for the administration that aims to strengthen collaboration between students, faculty and administration in major campus decisions.

In the document, government leaders cited recent watershed policy decisions -- including priority registration for athletes, meal plan changes, the move from credits to units and what they deemed was a "lack of representation on Strategic Plan committees" -- as examples of decisions made without adequate consideration of student views.

Representatives said the faculty and administration view the student government as a means to disseminate information to students rather than as "consultative bodies capable of offering meaningful insight on an array of issues," the proposal reads.

Karen DeBonis, a member of the RENEW/Sierra Club, a student environmental awareness group, said the group supported reducing food waste, but was quick to note the group was not formally involved in approving the move to eliminate trays. Schuyler said the committee members wanted to solicit opinion from other people outside the environmental groups.

Later, some members of WCGA in a meeting expressed concern that appointing one student to the sustainability committee did not represent the student body adequately.

Peck agreed that the committee was doing what it thought was best for the university. The student governments were informed about and asked their opinions earlier this semester regarding trayless Fridays and other sustainability initiatives. Government leaders supported the decisions, Peck said, and agreed to participate and help dining services in the process.

But Peck said student representatives were "shocked" about going completely trayless and had not been informed about the issue before the decision was made.

Students may not be able to change the decision, Whittaker said, but what can be changed is the process and student involvement.

Peck encouraged students to visit the WCGA Web site and offer their concerns about the trayless decision.

Contact staff writers Dan Petty and Stephanie Rice at dan.petty@richmond.edu and stephanie.rice@richmond.edu