Reginald Briggs, senior director of Dining Services, met with the Ithaca College Student Governance Council at its Dec. 2 meeting to discuss the meal exchange service and hear about its suggestions for dining.

The council also confirmed sophomore Haley Beckford as the Students of Color Coalition senator and passed a bill to recommend updates to the college’s Advertising and Solicitation Policy by fixing typographical errors and providing more flexibility in the ways clubs can advertise to students.

Dining Services

Briggs said the college introduced the meal exchange service in Fall 2023 to reduce the amount of foot traffic in the Campus Center, providing students with more dining locations across campus.

“It used to be that over 60% of the total swipes at lunchtime on Monday through Friday were literally downstairs in the Campus Center Dining Hall,” Briggs said. “Which is too many, too high of a percentage. After the exchange program … they’re down to 48%, which is totally manageable.”

Briggs said that while the service has moved students out of the Campus Center, some exchange locations do not receive many customers. He said that Dining Services is looking into why the exchange locations in the Park Center for Business and Sustainable Enterprise and the Center for Health Sciences do not receive many exchanges.

“It’s weird because the entire time, the business school and CHS have always been the bottom tier,” Briggs said. “I always wonder if it’s the location and just the amount of foot traffic in that space, or [if it is] actually the spaces that [don’t] entice people quite as much.”

Junior Rishabh Sen, president of the student body, suggested providing allergy-friendly options at exchange locations in the business school and CHS to increase the number of students who purchase food from them.

“If there would be more dairy-free or gluten-free options on campus that would be great,” Sen said. “Because I think right now, the only … purely gluten-free … thing that’s offered at CHS are the salads. So something like a burrito bowl at the business school, or something that’s not bread-based or cheese-based.”

Dante Conde, Class of 2026 senator, suggested improving the vending machines on campus. He said the vending machines have limited options and are too expensive.

“One time I wanted to get a bag of Lays,” Conde said. “It was about $4.50. I would probably find that in the city for maybe 75 cents [to a] dollar. Some of those things are a little absurd, to put it nicely.”

Briggs said Dining Services is aware of student frustration over vending machines. He said that despite the college transitioning vending services for Fall 2024, Dining Services is still looking to improve vending machines.

“We’re not happy with them,” Briggs said. “We’re happier, but it’s like we went from a D-plus to a C-plus. It’s still not what it’s meant to be.”

Students of Color Coalition Senator

The Students of Color Coalition senator position was created by SGC last spring to support students of color. According to the SGC constitution, the SOCC senator position will be held by a student who is part of any of the organizations that the SOCC recognizes.

Beckford was confirmed by the SGC as the SOCC Senator. She said she has faced microaggressions on campus and wants to be a voice for students of color who feel like their concerns are not being heard.

“Sometimes the voices or the experiences of students of color are sometimes, not purposely, … brushed aside [by the college],” Beckford said. “Because we are in the minority, we are kind of conditioned into thinking that a lot of … what we’re experiencing [is] normal. And so we’ve come to accept it as being OK, when in reality, it’s not.”

As of Fall 2024, 72.5% of the college’s students, faculty, staff and administration are white. Beckford, an international student from Jamaica, said she wants to support international students and students of color who feel unrepresented at a predominantly white institution.

“[I will] help not only international students, but also other students of color … who feel as if there’s nobody who can kind of say, ‘I’ve experienced that too,’” Beckford said.

Solicitation Policy Changes

The council discussed the Solicitation Policy Changes bill, sponsored by sophomore Eva Hurst, the SGC vice president of campus affairs, junior transfer Senator Login Abudalla, First-year student Senator-at-large Claude Hayes and Class of 2028 senators Amelia Grimshaw and Manan Maini.

The bill proposes updating the reference of the Student Government Association to the Student Governance Council and changes Towers Dining Hall, which no longer exists, to Campus Center Dining Hall, which was not previously mentioned in the policy.

The bill also recommends changes to the policy — which stated that solicitors are not allowed — to allow solicitors to engage with students politely. The bill also allows students to solicit on campus from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., which they previously could only do until 3 p.m.

The bill was passed with 11 in favor, none opposed and four abstaining. The four senators who abstained were Abudalla, Hayes, Grimshaw and Maini because they sponsored the bill.

The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC can be contacted at [email protected].