$3,800 goes to your meal plan but “all-you-can-eat” only applies within Barone’s cafeteria walls, as two students recently found out.
Allie Mattessich ’07 and Kim Czarnecki ’07 were written up for stealing food from Barone. Apparently, anyone that has taken a piece of fruit or grabbed a quick bagel between classes are also guilty.
“Once you swipe your card, you can eat all day long, but once you leave the café, you’re technically not supposed to have food,” said a Sodexho representative who requested his name not be used.
He added, “if you have a small piece of fruit or a half a bagel when you’re leaving, we let that slide, but people have been known to bring Tupperware and fill it up.”
Sodexho’s policy is stated on a large poster at the entrance of the dining hall.
Part of the policy states, “Food, dishes or utensils MAY NOT BE removed from the dining hall.”
Card-swiper Lourdes Leon said, “It is our job to enforce the rules posted right when you walk in but it’s not really our job to watch out and stop people from taking food-it’s more of the management’s job.”
Mattessich and Czarnecki were about to get on a two-hour bus ride leaving for the MAAC tournament in Albany on March 1 when they decided to grab a quick breakfast for the road.
Mattessich filled a cup of cereal and another with raisins. Czarnecki toasted a bagel with cream cheese and got a couple of bananas.
Upon sitting down, Mattessich noticed a man apparently telling the person swiping cards to “watch them.”
“He actually pointed at us,” said Mattessich.
Shortly after, they put the bananas in their bag and got ready to leave. The man approached them and asked to see what was in the bag and their ID cards.
After explaining that they were taking food for a long bus ride to Albany, he said it didn’t matter and wrote them up.
The girls managed to get the bagel and cereal out of the cafeteria but not before being told that they would hear from the Assistant Vice President of Student Services, Jim Fitzpatrick, who refused to comment on the matter, due to the fact that it is a judicial issue.
They haven’t received any notice as of yet. According to both Sodexo and university policy, as written in the student handbook, removal of food from Barone is forbidden, despite the fact that you technically did buy that food.
If Mattessich and Czarnecki receive notification of disciplinary action, they will be sent to judicial where they would simply go through a “learning experience,” said Jennifer Sayer, the assistant director for judicial affairs.
“It all depends on what level or amount of food is taken [to determine the punishment],” said Sayer. “My advice is to just abide by the policies outlined in the handbook and by the dining hall because judicial action can be taken out but for the most part, the dining hall kind of rules themselves.”
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