It’s no picnic when something essential breaks. Unless that something happens to be a dishwasher in Harris, then it is a picnic…literally. From Friday evening until Tuesday night last weekend, paper plates and plastic utensils were substituted for the ceramic plates and silverware, but otherwise meals continued to be served as usual.
With the sudden change, some students were unsure of what was going on. Said Rachael Hurwitz ’11, “I know we usually have one day where we have paper plates and plastic, but I was confused as to why it went on for so many days.”
Indeed, it was uncommon that a maintenance issue that affected so many students was not fixed for an entire weekend. Director of Dining Services Ingrid Bushwack explained the delay: according to her, the unique circumstances of the incident caused the unusual delay in repairs. “The College keeps a number of replacement parts on hand, but this was a major part we needed to have shipped from Illinois. We were forced to use disposable products until Tuesday when the part arrived and the repair was completed.” While no students seemed to know the details of the situation, many presumed a broken appliance was the cause.
Because of the environmentally conscious nature of our student body, many were upset at the environmental impact of using paper and plastic to serve so many students for several days. Dana Silverberg ’11 said, “I just think that it looks bad because we claim to be so environmentally friendly. Imagine a student coming to look at our school and seeing garbage cans full of trash and wasted food.”
However, Bushwack claimed that it was the very fact that so many students eat at Harris each day that made paper and plastic the only solution to the problem. “Based on the amount of meals that Harris serves there really was no other option for us.” Ultimately, the environmental concerns were overrun by practicality, as most students continued to eat in Harris despite the circumstances.
Unsurprisingly, other students actually enjoyed the less-formal dining ware. Justin Shamash ’13 said, “I thought it was pretty convenient that I didn’t have to wait in the line to put my plates on a tray, I could just throw them away wherever I wanted.”
Not every student shared Shamash’s positive outlook, but most understood that this was a unique, emergency situation, and was not reflective of the school’s commitment to sustainability. Rachel Jerome ’14 stated, “Obviously, it was not to most environmentally friendly thing to do, but I don’t know if there was another solution. I mean, what were we supposed to do, eat with our hands?”
While Connecticut College students do like to be environmentally friendly, and a few more days of paper and plastic may have caused some protests, most did seem to understand that a few days of paper and plastic was not going to undo all of the environmental progress our school has made over the past several years.
Bushwack appreciated the reasonable approach toward what happened last weekend: “I was gratified by the support of the students as we worked through the issue. I got the sense that students understood we were doing everything we could to make sure the quality and timing of the meals were not impacted by our dish machine problem.”
Bushwack could not specify any numerical figures regarding plates and plastic used, saying, “We did not specifically track the additional waste generated by this temporary paper usage.” However, the very fact that any excessive waste raised some eyebrows and made students uncomfortable does demonstrate the degree to which we’ve incorporated conservation and environmental awareness into our lives.
Ultimately, despite a minor disaster, life in Harris went on as usual: eggs hissed on the griddle, soups bubbled in the pots, and the usual weekend cheer filled our campus’ largest dining hall. However, the unfortunate saga of the broken dishwasher did leave the environmentalist in all of us with just a tiny bit of heartburn. •
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