Student worker, Young Democratic Socialists express discontent with Bon Appétit job cuts

Two diners self-serve food from Goudy as a worker refreshes toppings on Oct. 20, 2025. Photo by Patricia Krepel.

To start the fall semester, Bon Appétit, the food service which operates Willamette’s dining hall and food vending, cut some student worker positions and hours. Goudy no longer has student servers dishing up food and is instead entirely self-serve. Now, some students, spearheaded by the recently ASWU-affiliated Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), are voicing their concerns with these changes.

According to Eric Thomas, general manager of Bon Appétit at Willamette since fall of 2022, students' abilities to control their own portions has been shown to lead to less food waste, enabling institutions such as Goudy to be more cost-effective. 

However, without the chance to serve students, opportunities for work hours have been cut. “First off, I am not getting scheduled at all. I’ve had to ask for even just one day to work a week,” said a current student worker at Goudy who spoke with The Collegian under the condition of anonymity out of concern for keeping their job. “I’ve noticed also that they’re understaffed, like very understaffed, which confuses me because if you’re understaffed, why aren’t you scheduling us more?” 

The student estimated that they were regularly scheduled to work around 10 hours per week last semester and are now scheduled for only four. “It’s all-around kind of confusing, and they don’t really tell us much about why,” they said.

Alongside the removal of student servers, signs have also been placed around the dining hall stating that no food is to be removed from the premises unless it is in the green to-go boxes available for purchase. 

The signs state that this is not a new policy, having been announced multiple times throughout the beginning of the semester. The goal of the signs is to reduce food loss while avoiding putting the workers in a position of having to confront people. “We were always hoping to place that much emphasis on it,” Thomas said. “Sometimes, depending on the person who is working the door, they weren’t necessarily comfortable doing it or they didn’t want to do it.” 

Lisa Landreman, vice president of student affairs, who oversees the contract between Willamette and Bon Appétit, said that the contract is reviewed every five years, and the university currently sits about three years into the latest contract. 

On the newly-emphasized policies and changes, she said, “We are very aware of being cost-conscious, that food costs are skyrocketing for everyone. We were looking at how we can reduce waste. How can we reduce costs? So we are really doing all we can to contain costs.”

YDSA, an only recently affiliated club on Willamette’s campus, has chosen the changes in Goudy as the subject of its first campaign. YDSA is a youth and student subsection of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). 

YDSA’s goal on Willamette’s campus is “improving the day-to-day lives of students, advocating for students, ensuring that students are well taken care of by institutions and administrations, that promises are fulfilled, and that powers are not being abused,” said Tristan Surbaugh (’27), vice president of YDSA. “For something like Willamette, that means protecting our student workers and advocating for the student body and its needs to the administration.”

As the frontperson for the campaign on Goudy, Surbaugh put up posters around campus in order to encourage student Goudy workers, friends of student workers, and generally concerned students to anonymously share their experiences related to Bon Appétit. At the time of interviewing, Surbaugh had received 31 responses, which they shared with The Collegian. 

Alongside dissatisfaction with the job cuts, one other issue brought out by these responses relates to food safety — several raised concerns about the reduced staff’s ability to adequately monitor spills and cross-contaminations.

“If students have concerns, we ask them to come directly to us with those concerns so they can be addressed in the moment. Our team has detailed protocols for cleaning and food handling,” Thomas said in email correspondence with The Collegian. “And if a student has a concern about cross contamination or how to manage their dietary restrictions, it is best if we can work with them directly.” 

YDSA has tried to get into direct contact with Thomas, who has not yet responded directly to their specific concerns beyond, according to Thomas, inviting them to join the Dining Committee and to submit comment cards. 

“We’d really like Goudy to be honest and open because if there are real budget constraints, that is something they can bring to the student body and help the student body to understand,” Surbaugh said. “But it shouldn’t be up to the students to pick up the slack.”