The Wooster Voice

Audrey Pantaz, Contributing Writer

On any typical weekday morning, the garden level of Kauke Hall is buzzing with students in line at Boo Bears Brew hankering for their daily caffeine fix. Boo Bears, a small local business opened by owner Seth Feikert in 2018, came to The College of Wooster’s campus in the spring of 2022. Boo Bears began as a mobile coffee shop that moved to a permanent location in downtown Wooster in 2020 before opening its second location on the Wooster campus. The staff of the COW Boo Bears is almost entirely Wooster students, always cheerful and ready to take your order. 

Located 500 feet away in either direction are the two other dining locations on campus. Across the academic quad is Knowlton Café, and right across Beall Avenue is Lowry Dining Hall. Until fall of 2022, Knowlton and Lowry were run by the College, but following a controversial move to outsource dining to an independent contractor, both locations are now managed by Creative Dining Services. In response to the backlash, former President Sarah Bolton deemed outsourcing vital in an April 2022 email, declaring a need for “specialized menu-planning, cooking and food-labeling training and technology to meet dietary needs.” She wrote that the College was dealing with “supply chain disruptions … and ongoing challenges in hiring and training enough staff,” requiring the support of a larger company. Yet, Creative Dining Services did not resolve the forenamed issues. Knowlton and Lowry continue to face supply chain issues, provide minimal options for students with dietary restrictions and both are still understaffed. On the other hand, Boo Bears has remained comfortably staffed throughout its entire duration at The College of Wooster.  

Several Boo Bears staff members offered their own reasoning as to why Feikart does not face understaffing. One Boo Bears employee of over a year shared that “the wages are fair and the shifts run relatively smoothly.” In contrast to many on-campus jobs, Boo Bears employees receive more than minimum wage, about $4 more. The employees said, “I love working [at Boo Bears] and have never really considered leaving.” Another student employee cited the leadership of Seth Feikert as the reason they enjoy working at Boo Bears “[Seth] encourages us to make sure we are taking enough time for ourselves. If he notices a pattern of needing more hours covered each week, instead of asking us to work longer than what we committed ourselves to, he hires more employees, rather than consistently asking all of us to pick up extra hours every week.” The barista also believes the positive work environment is supported by the freedom of expression of the employees: “He allows us to maintain our own personal style. We can wear clothes that represent ourselves.”  

Several student employees at Knowlton expressed less positive sentiments when asked about their jobs post-outsourcing. One student, who quit working at Knowlton in December 2022 after over a year there, cited changes in work conditions as the reason they left. “The new management enforced a lot of new rules. We had to wear black shirts and stopped getting free lunches. The new system was horrible on the workers’ end, it wasn’t user-friendly, was super slow and changed a lot from the previous years.” Benefits for student employees of Knowlton and Lowry also disappeared under the management of the new company. The same student stated “Last year, we got a $100 Christmas bonus which was not given to us this year by the new company.” Another Knowlton student employee stated that “there are no raises[;] you get paid $10 all four years,” in contrast to Boo Bears where students receive a raise for each consecutive year they return. Currently, the College pays Knowlton and Lowry student employees the Ohio minimum wage of $10 an hour. According to one Boo Bears employee, at the beginning of the fall 2022 semester the Wooster administration “tried to tell Seth how much he could pay his employees.” The College wanted Boo Bears student employee wages to match the minimum wage paid to college student employees. The worker said that ultimately Feikert advocated for his employees and was able to maintain wages of $14 an hour. Contrastingly, the campus dining halls offer lower pay and no raises and therefore continue to struggle with the very staffing issues that were cited as rationale for outsourcing their services. Despite their qualms with the dining systems, student employees from Knowlton and Lowry commended their coworkers, and their dedication to their jobs, one student saying, “I loved my work environment at Knowlton, especially my coworkers… I always felt welcome.” One Lowry student employee felt that the system was at fault rather than the employees, saying, “they’re doing the best with what they have.” 

For now, the College’s decision to outsource Dining Services does not appear to have made any significant improvements to the standard of the student dining experience. Food choices, quality and general student satisfaction with campus dining facilities aren’t markedly improved. In addition, students seeking employment can often find better financial benefits and work environments by looking elsewhere. The College of Wooster has certainly reduced its administrative burden by giving up control of student dining, but most other reasons cited in former President Bolton’s email are not completely resolved as of yet. Still just six months into their new system of management, Lowry and Knowlton might see a trend of improving services and employment opportunities, which would certainly be welcomed by the Wooster student community. 

Ryan Greitlin, Contributing Writer

Nearing its one-year anniversary, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is still making headlines and influencing the world. As one of the most notable escalations of the nearly nine-year-old Russo-Ukraine War, many wonder how the ongoing crisis might affect their lives, with Europe witnessing its largest refugee crisis since World War II, countries cutting their dependency on Russian oil and foreign countries collectively spending over $80 billion in aid and support. This large scale conflict produces plenty of questions: How does this affect those living in Ukraine? What have been the inner workings of the militaries involved? Is this a strategically beneficial move for Russia? The 2023 Great Decisions of Wayne County Lecture Series sets out to answer these questions.

The series’ first event was a talk from retired Lt. General Mark Hertling, Commanding General of the U.S. Army in Europe from 2011 to 2012. With years of experience in military strategy, General Hertling analyzed and explained Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, breaking the conflict into a series of phases representing major shifts in strategy and examining Russian militaristic weaknesses.

Through his examination, General Hertling listed Russia’s extensive objectives, reflecting that Putin seeks a Ukrainian regime change, a weaker “West” and Ukraine and control over the Black Sea. Despite these objectives, General Hertling called Russia’s military “severely uncoordinated [with] poor leadership at every level.” He believes that even when it comes to morale and unity, the Russian military is still lacking. He spoke of a time when he was visiting a German military training facility that was previously used as a prisoner of war camp during World War II. A troop of local boy-scouts had spent time cleaning and restoring the graves of Russian prisoners-of-war in the facility graveyard – when the Russian general who was visiting with General Hertling saw this, he denounced the fallen soldiers, saying that they were not true Russians if they were in a prisoner of war camp. This was just one of many examples of the widespread lack of camaraderie seen throughout the Russian military, and ultimately is what contributes to what General Hertling seeks severe lack of unity and strategy. General Hertling made it clear that while this invasion has been and will continue to hurt the Russian military, there are still wild cards such as Russia’s potential to use nuclear weapons that leave the outcome of this invasion unknown. As one audience member said when asked after the lecture about their takeaway, “Time, economics, public support and pure military strength will combine to end the war, but the capacity in which they do so is unable to be predicted due to the shifting nature of various components.”

This series consists of four events through February and March organized by Great Decisions of Wayne County, a 40-year-old collaboration between The College of Wooster and members of Wayne County. For 2023, Great Decisions aims to bring in experts to increase the learning and engagement of worldly affairs for the entire Wooster community. In the words of Matt Mariola, the Environmental Studies program chair and Executive Director of Great Decisions, “The two biggest objectives are to have a forum in which we discuss issues of global importance…then along with that we really want this to be a college-community integration.” 

It was obvious how much impact this series will have on the community. Just for this opening night, Gault Recital Hall was at max capacity, with around 60-70% of the audience members being from the Wooster community outside the College. These events also bring lots of benefits to the students and their classrooms–after arriving in Wooster but before the lecture, General Hertling was able to meet with students both inside and outside of classes. One student who was able to meet and spend time with General Hertling during the day prior to his lecture said their time with him was eye-opening and hopes that other students can take advantage of these opportunities. 

As put by organizers, the Great Decisions series captures the essence of the exchange of knowledge. These events are fantastic opportunities to become enlightened about world issues and learn how they are integrated with both the global community and the Wooster community. The next event, on Feb. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall, will be a lecture from Michael Bociurkiw, a journalist who has been reporting from Ukraine for the past year. I encourage anyone who has that Tuesday free to check it out, as well as all future events in the Great Decisions series. An hour and a half of your time is more than worth it to walk away with this level of quality first-hand insight and awareness.

Gianna Hayes, News Editor

Mom’s Late Night has long been a staple for hungry students pulling all-nighters or staying out to catch up with friends. Since renovating the Student Center, Campus Dining has made various upgrades, notably with Mom’s Late Night. But have these really been upgrades? The Voice fielded a survey to gauge the College community’s opinions. Over 200 responses, concerns, suggestions and reviews were shared. 

Students were asked to anonymously rate the food quality, ordering system and pricing on a scale from one to five, with five being “high satisfaction” and one being “low satisfaction.” 

Satisfaction with food quality averaged 2.7/5 between all respondents, with 31.7% of respondents rating it 3/5 and another 18.3% rating it as 1/5. Only 4.1% of students rated it 5/5. The ordering interface was rated by 40.3% of students a 1/5 in terms of functionality. Only nine respondents, comprising 4.1%, rated it as a 5/5. 

One of the concerns raised about Mom’s Late Night was the disregard for particular diets, so the Voice asked students if they thought their dietary needs and restrictions were being met. A little over half of students surveyed responded “yes,” but in the “other” option, many students wrote in responses concerned for their friends’ dietary needs. Still, a staggering 40.4% of respondents stated that their dietary restrictions were not being met, with one anonymous respondent pointing out that there was “definitely cross contamination with the gluten.” Another student brought up the unfair pricing, saying “alternative dietary options shouldn’t cost extra.”

Many students expressed frustration with the pricing system, with students pointing out that they could get more food from Lowry for fewer meal swipes. Only 3.2% of respondents felt that the food was priced fairly. Other complaints involved the long wait times and slow nature of the ordering system, with students pointing out that “every time [they] order, there’s a problem or different way or ordering.” Kelsey Mize ’26 found the interface so impossible to use she told us that “[her] friends always pay for [her] because [she] can’t figure it out.”

Another student had to “wait over an hour for food one time,” and yet another pointed out that the “website takes a very long time … so many people wait 30-45 minutes.” Emma Downing ’24 had a particularly bad experience, telling us that she “waited 70 minutes for a patty melt, fries and two orders of onion rings. They said I only ordered one order of onion rings, my fries were cold, and the patty melt was soggy and dry at the same time. I was extremely disappointed with my experience.”

In particular, athletes were very frustrated. One athlete stated that “there is no food for athletes after meets or sports events that is healthy and nutritious. If we finish a meet after 8 p.m.[,] there is nowhere to eat.” A lacrosse player pointed out that they routinely practice from 6 to 8 p.m., and that “having to spend two [or more] meal swipes to get less food than what we can get for a meal swipe when Lowry is open is a little hard to stomach.” Despite this, the largest complaint was with the food quality, with students calling it “horrible,” stating that “the pizza dough is raw,” and that the “items are really expensive for poor quality.” Another student expressed a hatred for the pizza, remarking Mom’s should not “have nights where it is just pizza. That was terrible and ruined my entire night.” Finally, an anonymous student submitted the plaintive, “The food is really bad. Please improve it.”