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Syracuse University has relocated food service workers to open cafes and to restaurants in its newly-renovated Schine Student Center. But some workers still have concerns about how the changes could impact public health. 

The university has closed several campus cafes and significantly reduced hours at others as sales drop amid the pandemic. In the fall, closures, reduced hours and limited offerings at some cafes meant other food locations on campus were inundated with students, workers said. And when employees thought they might have come in contact with the virus, SU’s policies sometimes left them in the dark about what to do next, they said. 

At Bird Library’s Pages Cafe, limited seating made it hard for students and employees to find a place to eat, and employees sometimes struggled to enforce health guidelines, said Anna D’Aprix, a student supervisor at the cafe. 

“Student workers who worked more than four hours get a break to go eat, but we wouldn’t have anywhere to go,” D’Aprix said. “Kids would come and be standing, trying to figure out where to eat.”

Students not wearing masks in cafes or not covering their noses with masks was also an issue during the fall semester, she said. Often, workers weren’t sure who was supposed to enforce the rules. 

“There was this weird thing where it wasn’t our job to tell them to pull the mask up but then (the Department of Public Safety) told us they couldn’t technically say anything either,” D’Aprix said. “It became this weird question of, ‘Who is supposed to say something?’” 

It was also difficult for student workers to enforce rules about students occupying tables for extended periods of time. Even though it wasn’t clear who should enforce some of the policies, employees became more comfortable correcting students and teaching them about the guidelines as the semester went on, she said. 

Student workers and full-time employees are required to wear medical masks and gloves, and the food in cafes is often pre-made and pre-packaged, said Keone Weigl, the marketing and promotions manager for Food Services. SU has also increased cleaning procedures in its dining facilities, she said.

Maya Goosmann | Design Editor

While many COVID-19 procedures for campus dining in the fall remain the same, changes made to hours and policies in the spring have made it more challenging to find shifts and choose locations to work at, said Alicia Harris, a student supervisor.

“They’re closing a lot of places and closing a lot of places early and not having other options, so people are going to be pooling to certain areas and certain places,” Harris said. 

Pages Cafe, which is usually open until 11 p.m. on weekdays, will now close at 3 p.m. and will be closed completely on the weekends. Kimmel, a food court which used to be open until the early morning, has now permanently closed with the re-opening of Schine Student Center. 

The re-opening of Schine will provide more space for students to eat and will expand dining options, Weigl said. The center’s food options will only provide takeout at the start of the semester, and indoor dining will be introduced gradually, she said. 

SU could still make improvements in enforcing guidelines for its food service employees and keeping them informed about how to react when they think they might have come in contact with the virus, Harris said. 

The university has asked employees to fill out a survey before they start work to ensure they aren’t experiencing symptoms of COVID-19, but sometimes workers this fall wouldn’t fill it out, Harris said. 

Gaps in communications about contact tracing was another concern among workers this fall, she said. 

“Last semester I had a scare where I had exposure to someone who had worked, but I didn’t know until two days later,” Harris said. 

The best way SU can protect students is by quickly alerting workers if they have been exposed to the virus and closing cafes where there has been an exposure, Harris said. 

“Just trying to get that information out as quickly as possible and doing a better way of figuring out who’s been exposed, I think that’s the big thing because that mitigates the possibility of someone working having it, spreading it to other people that they work with and then spreading it to customers,” Harris said.

Published on February 7, 2021 at 11:38 pm

Contact Kailey: kmnorusi@syr.edu