VCU DINING

VCU DINING

When Alisa Sweeney walked in the dining hall at Virginia Commonwealth University, all she wanted was some french fries, but all she got was a bad attitude. Sweeney, a 20-year-old sophomore said that she did not expect to get treated the way she did. “I asked the man serving for some fries, and he just gave me this awful look like I was interrupting something and turned his back on me without saying a word. It was kind of surprising because it’s their job to serve us; it wasn’t like I was asking him to clean up after me.”

Several other students echo the sentiments made by Sweeney. Eric Byerley, 21-year-old junior and business major said, “I’ll be in Shafer and all the employees just seem to be in a bad mood, like they slam the food down and act all grumpy, it’s really disheartening. It’s like they can’t wait to get rid of me.” Frustrated students who feel as though they are being neglected by their own school wonder why is it that the staff at VCU seems to be overwhelmingly unfriendly towards their customers. “Maybe they’re just tired, but it seems that most of them don’t care about their job and are just waiting to go home,” said 20-year-old junior public relations student, Maddie Brady.

Although students may feel as though the employees at Shafer are not trained properly in customer service, associate vice president for facilities management, Brian Ohlinger, assures that the employees go through extensive training before they begin work. “Our employees, upon hiring must complete training that teaches them the basics of customer service. Now it is their responsibility to implement that training into their jobs, but we do offer our staff that knowledge.”

Still, VCU students are not pleased with the job the school is doing when offering friendly service. 20-year-old advertising junior Liz Marshall said, “I think students would have a better opinion of VCU if the people that work here were nicer. It really puts you in a bad mood when you’re trying to pay for your food and the people are being rude or disrespectful.” Christa Temple, 20, a junior criminal justice major and an employee at student health services feels as though the respect between students and staff is mutual. “I see both sides of it because I am a student, and I’m also an employee that works for the school. Sometimes I feel like I get disrespected by people who work at Shafer, or in the Commons, but when I’m at work I deal with people that try my patience and disrespect me, so I see where other employees can get a little aggravated.”


Students here feel that if the customer service had some fine tuning it would make for a better environment. 23-year-old senior biology major, Richie Gallanosa agrees that in his four years at the university, he has never really received a good vibe from VCU employees. “VCU would really step up in my book if everyone who worked here got a lesson in customer service.”

For many, consideration toward their students adds to the perception of the campus, if students are being treated with terrible service, it reflects poorly on the university. “I know better than to judge the campus on how a few employees treat the students, but I really have a hard time saying anything nice about most of the food preparation staff here. It makes me have a negative opinion on VCU because of it,” says 18-year-old freshman Matt Binck.


Several students can cite at least one time where they’ve had a negative experience with VCU dining. Whether it is in the dining hall, or in the Student Commons, students agree that the university has a problem with the way their staff handles the transactions of their students. Said 20-year-old finance junior Alex Del Guidice, “VCU would be much better off with employees who knew how to deal with customers in a professional way. I think that if one person was courteous to the students, it would change the opinions of a lot of the students, maybe the other employees would follow suit.”

Sources-
Eric Byerley, junior- byerleyej@vcu.edu
Maddie Brady, junior- bradymj@vcu.edu
Alisa Sweeney, sophomore- sweeneyal@vcu.edu
Liz Marshall, junior- marshallec@vcu.edu
Christa Temple, junior- templecj@vcu.edu
Richie Gallanosa, senior- gallanosams@vcu.edu
Matt Binck, freshman- binckmj@vcu.edu
Alex Del Guidice, junior- delguidiceac@vcu.edu
Brian Ohlinger, associate vice president for facilities management bjohling@vcu.edu