ARAMARK and UofSC Aiken Dining discriminates against certain students
When it comes to UofSC Aiken, bad news for the administration is a daily occurrence. This reporter tends to be on the receiving end of a lot of discrimination and abuse on campus, mostly because of their willingness to blow the whistle on bad behavior.
Today is no exception. The campus boast of several dining options for students. On this day, I planned to make a trip to The Station, a sub and sandwich shop located in the Humanities and Social Sciences building. The manager of The Station is a delightful woman by the name of Von. She is a bright ray of sunshine to those around her.
However, when she is not at The Station, the other employees are sullen, abusive, and discriminatory. Von being gone when I arrived at The Station should have been my first indication that there was going to be problems. The employee, Neatree, greeted me and asked what I wanted. I stated that I wanted a Turkey Sub. She said that I could not get a turkey sub because it was not 11:00 AM. It was 10:50 AM and so I figured I would wait the ten minutes to get my sandwich.
I sat down to wait, when I noticed another student, a slender African-American female, approach the counter and order a Turkey and Chicken sub. I looked at the clock on the wall: it was 10:55 AM. It had been a mere 5 minutes since I had asked for a Turkey sub. Did the employee turn away the student as she had me? No. She diligently started to make the young student her sub.
“After speaking with Miss Von, she advised me that her staff did in fact make sandwiches for two other guests; but they were breakfast sandwiches, and they had not started making deli sandwiches at that point,” Mark Robinson, General Manager of UofSC Dining claimed in an email today. However, they do not serve chicken and turkey breakfast sandwiches and the breakfast sandwiches are round not oblong as the sandwiches these young women received were.
This is common place at UofSC Aiken. It is even more common place with the ARAMARK Dining Services. When the facts do not fit their narrative, they lie and cover up the truth. This is what led to the dismissal of their last two General Managers at UofSC Aiken.
Last semester, I ask the Chef Rob twice if he could order sugar-free waffle syrup since I am a diabetic and cannot have sugar. Twice he said that he would. The semester ended and he had not ordered the syrup. This meant that my options for breakfast were limited to what they were willing to serve me, rather than what I wanted to eat.
Meal plans at UofSC Aiken range from $75 to a whopping $1,700. For that, students are allowed to eat at The Station, The Cafe, Starbucks, and The Market. Despite the fact that they claim they accommodate all students, non-traditional students with health issues are rarely accommodated. “We take into account your personal dietary needs and will make every effort to help you find food that fits your life. Reach out to meet with our dining team to discuss alternative options when the daily menu offerings do not meet your needs.”
As a non-traditional student for the last 4 years, I have routinely reached out to Dining Services about my dietary needs. However, more times than not, these requests fall on deaf ears.
Today’s discrimination by The Station staff was just another in a long line of problem as UofSC Aiken.