Dining director responds to criticism

CSC’s Dining Services director disputed criticisms of the food service that appeared in an article published Jan. 28 in The Eagle, calling them “unfair and unethical.”
“The article by itself was very – let’s put it this way – very discouraging for somebody like me in Dining Services who made a lot of effort in the last three months to change what it has been,” Senthil Rajamani, director of Dining Services, said Tuesday.
Rajamani said the claims in the article made by Trent Grizzle, 22, senior of Fairbury, that there was no food in the cafeteria on Jan. 18, were not entirely true because there was only a “10-minute lapse” before more food was put out.

“Did he not get food? Did he walk away hungry? No, he did get food,” Rajamani said, “it just took seven or eight minutes before they refilled it. It’s not something that you can make other people’s problem and then five minutes delay, seven minutes delay you got food.”
Rajamani said 260 dinners were served that night, meaning that Dining Services were “probably not 100% prepared” because they were cooking to serve about 180 students. In the weeks before, the cafeteria had been averaging between “157 to 180” dinners.
Rajamani said he would like to see students take the initiative with making changes to Dining Services, rather than “banging on a keyboard and being a Twitter warrior.”
But in his view, students seem to be prefer complaining rather than taking a productive approach.
“It’s always that students tend to complain and never be part of the change. I’ve been in college, so I understand how it works,” he said.
Rajamani said that the comments from an informal survey done by The Eagle on Jan. 25, which appeared in the Jan. 28 article, were not reliable because the answers sent in by students were from “friends and fans” rather than a broader group of students.
Rajamani’s statement about The Eagle’s survey is accurate, but last week’s article noted the survey was informal.
In that informal Instagram survey, The Eagle asked a simple question: “Are you satisfied with CSC Dining Services?” Students had the option to answer yes or no, and were able to submit comments. On the yes-or-no question, 63 out of 75 students responded “no.” Of the 15 people who submitted comments, two comments were positive, two were from non-CSC related people and 11 were negative.
Rajamani said Dining Services tries to include as much diversity and quality as possible in the food served, but said current inflation rates and supply chain issues make it hard.
He also said students are encouraged to send in homecooked meal recipes to Dining Services, Rajamani said. Dining Services and the food service committee are also working to get an herb garden on campus for the fall semester to provide the cafeteria with fresh produce.