Sodexo, a name students may not know of, but Sodexo is a company that knows its students. Sodexo “is committed to enhancing the learning environment on your campus through world-class food and facilities services, while supporting the ethics and values of your institution.” At first glance of the dining halls schedule, I must admit the hours for dinner was considerably early. At home, dinner was normally served around 7:00PM, sometimes after, and I think that’s pretty typical, so when I saw that dinner was from 4:45 to 7:15 I was surprised at how early it was. And the odder thing was the dining hall at Centennial Halls is closed on Friday and Saturday nights. Where was I supposed to eat? But I figured there are reasons for everything, so I just went along to new change. After living at Centennial Halls for almost two quarters now, I don’t even notice the hours; it has become a routine like at home.
The hours given, provides guidelines for students, many who are freshman. Without parents there to pressure you about eating your veggies and have three meals a day a decent hours, the dining halls hours in some way act as your parents. College is an immense transition for many students, and one big part is adjusting to new eating habits (new food, and new times.) We have to keep in mind that at DU we have students from all over the world so the schedule has to accommodate everyone. There are those people out there who eat earlier than others, and students get out of class at random times, so the schedule has to consider that too. There’s much more freedom living in a dorm compared to living at home for most students, and the dorms still can’t control what you eat, the least they can do is mold students into the new, regulated schedule.
To provide for all the students, Sodexo needs help and lots of it. Sodexo is more than just providing for students, it’s about providing jobs and benefits to millions of workers worldwide. The hours are more than just for the students; it’s also for the workers. The dining hall closes at 7:15 PM, but the work doesn’t end there, they still have to tally up the day, clean of the tables, the kitchen, and so on and so forth. So by the time the work is done, it’s at least 8:30 PM, normally around nine, and sometimes even later, according to one Sodexo worker. Even though college is the time to live out our lives, we have to realize that these workers have families and children who would want to spend time with them.
As for the dining hall being closed on Friday and Saturday nights, there are several reasons for that. There’s always the issue of budget. Sodexo is a company thriving on bringing the best service at an affordable price. By closing on the weekend, the company can cut down some of the costs. Also, there’s not a big enough of a demand. As a new student, new to the community, new to the people, most students choose to explore on the weekend. Another factor is that with the dining hall being closed on the weekend, it forces the students to explore more, meet new people, and find new places.
And if none of the options work for you, the C-store is open when the dining hall is not. This provides students with more resources to get a variety of food (ramen, milk, cereal…) Therefore the dining hall does not need to open more than it is now. This saves energy from all the heat to cook the food, keep it warm, and the team of workers that are there to provide service, as opposed to just having one person manage the C-store. All students living in centennial halls are required to purchase a meal plan that suits their eating habits, and in every meal plan, meal cash is included where they can spend it at the C-store. So this also pushes students to start thinking more about how to spend their money wisely if they haven’t already, and plan it accordingly.
From my experience, the dining hall is always packed around 6:00PM, but around 7:00 PM people in the dining hall are getting scarce. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, Nelson’s dining hall isn’t any busier than it is on a weekday. So the hours just group the students more together instead of spreading it out which would stretch out their resources, which would mean the quality would decrease. As always you can’t always make everyone happy, but you do try to please the majority and provide the best service possible, and that’s what Sodexo has done.
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As a reader who has never heard of Sodexo, aside from the occasional talk about the unfair treatments of workers, I thought this blog was very persuasive. Since I live in Centennial Halls, I am biased because I would love for the dining halls to be open longer. I had never taken into consideration that college is a time for change, and forcing students to have an early eating schedule is just something we have to adjust to. It is also a good point that there are a lot of people who come from all over the world; they have different eating schedule and habits. Therefore with the different schedules because of different living areas, as well as different class schedules, it is important for the dining halls to be open early. You also pointed out that it is unfair for the workers to have to keep their facilities open longer, due to the fact that they have to stay late to close everything down, but the athletes normally do not get a chance to eat or very little time if any. Maybe they could stay open a little bit longer so that the athletes are able to have the time that they need as well to eat. You established your logos very well by presenting all of the options for people on weekends, pointing out that as freshman we should push our limits and explore new things. Many people go out to eat on the weekends anyways, so it would be a waste of heat and cooking materials. The C-store being open when the dining hall is not is also very persuasive, because food is always readily available. Overall, your writing was very persuasive and appealed to an audience that can see where your arguments are coming from.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I did not necessarily agree with your argument, I think that at parts you did a good job of providing a good persuasive argument. For example, when you were discussing the dining hall hours and relating them to the hours the Sodexo workers are working for, it really enhances your pathos appeal. Describing how although the food stops being served at 7 P.M., people need to realize that the Sodexo workers often have to stay to clean up until after 9P.M. This makes your argument stronger because it made me feel sympathy towards the workers and more understanding as to why the dining halls closed so early. Another part of your blog that was very strong was your use of extrinsic evidence and you had a strong ethos. By interviewing a worker on how long they had to work till, it gave me a sense of how those workers felt about the issue and how the company was dealing with the dining hall hour issues. Your ethos was very strong because the way you wrote your blog seemed like to me that you felt very strongly about the issue. It also showed that you were living the same life with the current dining hall hours as everyone else in Halls and if you can deal with the issue, then other people can too.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the majority of the time you had a strong pathos and ethos, some parts of your argument were not persuasive enough for me. For example, when you stated, “We have to keep in mind that at DU we have students from all over the world so the schedule has to accommodate everyone”, you fail to consider the people that are used to eating later, so therefore, the current schedule is not accommodating everyone. Although you had good alternatives such as branching out to eat outside of the dorms, and buying food at the C-Store, you fail to take into account on how much money students have to pay for these meal plans that Sodexo offers and how it is failing to please the customer when the dining halls aren’t open on certain days or at certain times. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good blog but I think more evidence or stronger ideas would help to persuade me more on this subject.
This project was a good summary of the other writing assignments that we’ve done in this class. It incorporates a personal voice like we did with the narrative essay, and hard facts, and appeals, like in the rhetorical analysis. At the beginning of this writing assignment I was worried, because our group decided to pick the same topic and debate on different sides of it. I don’t personally completely agree with all the reasoning of Sodexo about their hours and such. But as I continue to write the paper in many ways I was trying to convince myself to believe these ideas. By thinking more about how inconvenient the hours are for me but more toward the company’s insight, and the workers, and all the other students, it made me see all the other views. In order to be persuasive, I showed that I’m a student living with the dining hall hours, this provides me with credibility, showing that I’ve experience this and it’s not so bad. I also used pathos, by providing the readers with the workers side, that their lives are not just providing students with food, but they do have their own lives and family. In revising this post, I would find more supporting details to expand the range of my ideas. Like I’m making a lot assumptions like that the food provided is always healthy and delicious, and that the c-store has snacks for students when the dining hall is not open, but I didn’t acknowledge those students who rely on the c-store for all of their meals. I think providing more options and details will help make my post more persuasive.
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