November 17, 2004

Dear Employees of Hampshire College Dining Service,

I am writing to apologize for any miscommunications surrounding the ongoing all community vote regarding localizing the cafeteria. As you are hopefully now aware, the outcome of this vote has no direct effect on influencing any change at Hampshire. The vote results serve more to express a generalized consensus of how the community feels about the issues raised then to have any direct impact on change.

I helped organize this vote as a way to gather more empirical data on the kinds of opinions the community has regarding the issue localizing the cafeteria, not only through the food we serve but also through the services that provide it. It has been a really great process to receive people's responses to the proposal, since many of the responses raise very important points that will now further direct my research.

Since beginning this process, about three months ago, of researching what a switch from the Sodexho Alliance corporation to an in-house food service would look like, I have tried to be honest about balancing the ideal outcome with the realistic, more immediate effects of the transition. Throughout the development of this project, I have certainly taken into consideration the effects that the switch would have on the current employees of Hampshire's dining service, since you all would directly experience the outcome of this transition. My research partner, Will Wallace-Gusakov, and I, have definitely thought about and begun to research whether or not your benefits and wages would be affected in switching from being employees of Sodexho to being employees of Hampshire College. This aspect of the research has not been flushed out yet for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that this type of information (on wages and benefits) tends to be very confidential and I have assumed (and experienced from the people I have asked) that people, on both the Sodexho as well as the Hampshire College sides, are not comfortable sharing it. Another reason is that my research is still in its initial stages, and I still have a lot of questions that have not been answered yet. If I felt more confident that this type of transition had more potential of occurring sooner rather than later, then your concerns would certainly take more priority. As the case is now, my project is more oriented around what the transition would look like if it were to happen and what types of issues would arise.

I thank you for the expression of your concerns, as they are an amazing reminder for me to not get carried away with a romanticized ideal at the sake of people being hurt or disempowered in the reality of change. At the same time, though, it is my job as a student, as well as a member of this community, to question the way we do things and to push for change that has the potential to ultimately be better for this community as well as the larger communities that we are part of.

You may be asking, 'Who is she to determine what is actually better for me as a member of this community," and "Why does she think she can throw these ideas around when in reality, it is our lives that would be greatly impacted by the outcome of this decision?" These questions are incredibly valid, especially since I have barely spoken with any of the current dining staff members about their opinions on the situation. My response to these questions is that I am still very much in a place of working from the bigger picture of what it means for Hampshire College to support a large corporation such as Sodexho, and have only begun to take steps to address the details involved in the specific situation of Hampshire switching to an in-house food service. My intention in helping to organize this vote has been more to get a response from the community to see what types of issues arise for them (for us), as well as to get a feel for whether the community would support this type of change. If the proposal were supported, it would provide more power to the continuance of this research, especially in its ability to prevent the administration from completely bagging the issue.

I see now that it would have been best for me to have engaged in a dialogue with you all prior to this vote, but I did not see that as clearly beforehand. This has been a learning process for me, hopefully for other members of the community as well, and I'm sorry if this process his instigated any fear and anger in you all or has created conflict within the cafeteria.

Please know that my approach to this project has thus far been based very much on a desire to work with people, so that everyone's concerns are heard, as opposed to working against people.

I hope that we can take the time sometime in the near future to have a conversation about your concerns regarding my research. In the mean time, I would love to talk with any of you. Please feel free to call, email, or write me.

Sincerely,

Laura Dinwiddie