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Archives: October, 2009

Lizeth–Transitioning to OSU  October 28th, 2009

Well now it is about to be my fifth week of college and understand why people get really stressed out during midterms. Living on campus has really helped me out this week. You might be wondering, “how does living on campus help you with midterms?” Living on campus you can get a support and study system that you could have difficulty finding off-campus. Last week I studied with my friends and when I was stressed they would always cheer me up and push me to keep going. The campus also provides a sense of safety, stability, and getting to know places around campus. Oregon State University has many faculty members that are willing to help you whenever you are feeling lost and homesick. The campus might look big now but once you are here and walking around, it will feel just like any other school.

My transition to OSU has been really smooth. I feel welcomed and to be honest I don’t feel homesick at all. Everyone welcomes you with open arms. A big part of that is because I am living on campus. If I lived off campus I would still be getting lost and would have to worry about transportation and meeting new people. Since I live in the dorms I have many friends that are taking the same classes or have taken them already. We form our own study group and help one another. It helps a lot when we have questions on the homework or for some reason we couldn’t make it to the class we can rely on getting the notes from each other. Transportation as we all know is annoying, but on campus it doesn’t matter because all the dorms are within walking distance to classes. I live in the farthest dorm and I can get to Kidder, which is across campus, in ten minutes. Everyone is walking or riding their bikes too so you don’t feel left out either. Off campus you have to use a car, which depending on the type of vehicle, spends a lot of money on gas. The bus sometimes can be reliable but sometimes things come up and you’re late to the bus stop and miss it. Then you are stuck on what to do and on top of that you missed your class.

I know from personal experience that if you live on campus your transition to your college is going to be better and your worries are going to be less than if you live off campus. I hope you all have a wonderful week and have a Happy Halloween.


Rich Turnbull–Dining Hours Adjustments  October 26th, 2009

Now that we’ve arrived at or near the middle of fall term I’d like to share with you some of the feedback we’ve received from our customers and how we’ve responded. During the summer it became evident that University Housing and Dining Services needed to reduce our department budget by approximately $2 million dollars in order to fund renovation and facility upgrades to keep our residences and dining centers safe and livable. The largest expense in Dining Services is the cost of labor of preparing and serving more than 2 million meals during the year. Labor hours and therefore labor costs are directly related to the hours of operation. So to make the adjustment necessary to achieve the budget reductions required in Dining Services we needed to reduce the hours of operation. Based on last year’s pattern of customer traffic I made adjustments that I felt would yield the greatest labor savings with the minimum impact on customer service.

Every year customer traffic patterns change a bit and this year is no different. Some of the reductions in hours have had a greater impact on customers than we initially thought. I have been carefully timing the length of time it takes for a customer to be served in each of our restaurants, monitoring sales in each of our 17 restaurants in 15 minute increments, and have read carefully the comments that have been submitted to our online feedback form. Before making further adjustments to changes in operational hours I asked each of our managers to hold off until the drop/add dates had passed and then to recommend to me, based on their observations and the feedback you’ve given us, what hours if any should be added back or modified.

I now have that information and would like to share that with you. At McNary Dining Center RainTree Coffee Co. will open a half hour earlier at 7:00am and close a half hour earlier at 3:30pm. At Marketplace West EBGB’s will also open a half hour earlier at 7:00am. Clubhouse Deli will stay open an hour longer until 7:00pm. Tomassito’s will stay open on Sunday’s an additional half hour until 7:30pm. At Arnold Center the Bistro will close a half hour earlier at lunch at 3:00pm, allowing us to keep Cascadia Market open an hour later until 10:00pm. These adjustments will be implemented by November 1st. I believe we can make these adjustments and still achieve our goal of reducing expenses of the Dining program by about $1 million. This has a significant impact on helping University Housing and Dining Services minimize rate increases for living on campus.


Lizeth – New Experiences and Beginnings  October 13th, 2009

Surprisingly I am done with the first two weeks of my college career and they went so fast. People always say how time flies when you are having fun and I never believed them. Time always went by so slow in high school and it seemed you had a lot of time on your hands, but now there is no time waste. You always have a paper due or an assignment that needs to get done. Since I have been at Oregon State University it has been exciting and I am already enjoying new experiences like rock climbing at the Dixon Recreational Center.

I have really enjoyed starting the class this fall. In the mornings there is nothing but a sea of people going to classes, it really is such a different experience. Right now I am taking: Math 251, Chemistry 221, ALS 107, and Spanish 314. It is mostly review for now but they still give you a lot of homework to do and I am still having nights where I stay up late and get no sleep. The professors/instructors have been helpful getting the students ready for class. I am stressing a bit though because I found out that I am having my first midterm next Tuesday! Yes, midterms happen quickly here and you have to be prepared for anything. That is why college is such a great new experience because you never know what is in store or what is going to happen next or where you will end up. Hopefully you decide to come to Oregon State University. I know I am enjoying it and I know you will too! Well I hope you have a wonderful weekend.