WEDNESDAY,MAY 7,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
Filth
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
according to the Department of Student Housing's Web site.
Ostrander has avoided telling his parents about the conditions of the hall, because he doesn't want to risk them making him move. He isn't alone.
Micah Whitacre, Olathe junior, has never let his family see where he eats every day at Stephenson Hall.
"If my mother knew what the kitchens are like around here, she'd go ballistic." Whitacre said.
Though he said he didn't think that eating in the hall had ever made him sick, the conditions were unacceptable to him.
"I am appalled at the general state of the kitchens. They've never harmed me, but I still don't approve of them," he said.
Matthew Erb, Mulvane junior and the proctor in charge of making sure Stephenson residents do their assigned shifts, said that while people often forgot to do their shifts or did the bare minimum, it wasn't a serious issue.
"I'm not running a hospital here," he said. "It's a bunch of 20-year-old guys, but I do try to keep it sanitary."
Dan Suitor, complex director for the scholarship halls, downplayed the state of Stephenson's kitchen.
"If you're asking me if Stephenson has room for improvement, I would say yes. Is it the worst I've ever seen it? No. Is it the worst I've ever seen any hall? No." Suitor said.
On the other hand, Suitor's supervisor Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said the conditions at Stephenson were unacceptable.
"Stephenson's kitchen is the least clean at the moment," hesaid.
Kansas law requires all food service establishments to submit to annual inspections by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Scholarship halls manage to avoid these inspections because, according to Kansas Statute 36-501 paragraph e, a 'food service establishment' by definition must be an "operation where food is served or provided for the public."
Though realistically any member of the public could sit down and have a meal at a scholarship hall, as some often do, the food is purchased and prepared with the intent of being served only to residents, so the halls fall outside of KDHE's jurisdiction.
Sharon Watson, media representative for KDHE, researched the matter of scholarship hall kitchens with a team of lawyers, and said after reviewing the matter, she wasn't surprised the scholarship halls were exempt from inspection.
In the absence of state inspections, Suitor conducts walk through of all of the halls with Debra Carter, business manager for the department of student housing, and Jan Girmius, custodial supervisor. The results of these inspections are not written reports like KDHE's, but rather verbal consultations with the halls' proctors and scholarship hall directors, with another verbal report made to Stoner.
"When you don't have a professional cook, it's more of a home atmosphere," she said.
The problem with Stephenson is that it continues to have the same health issues pointed out over and over, Stoner said.
"We don't feel like there has been any amount of improvement, which is disappointing," he said. "Nothing really gets better."
Suitor said that the attitude of
"I think that this kind of system may allow for some health code violations and some health concerns.I would welcome change in the condition if it led to the hall being a cleaner, healthier place to live."
Stephenson's residents was partially to blame.
Ian Ostrander Emporia sophomore
"I just think it's come down to a standoff between them and housing. They enjoy the moniker of black sheep. They enjoy being the bad guys." Suitor said. Suitor also said that the disrepair of the 51-year-old hall contributed to the problem.
In contrast, Stoner said that the leadership within the hall rather than the hall itself was a factor in the state of the kitchens.
"The rapid turnover of leaders is probably a part of it. The other part of it is that everyone wants to be friends, and no one wants to be the bad guy and enforce the rules," he said.
Because scholarship hall directors last an average of two years and proctors only one, Stoner said that they would leave before they had a chance to see a reoccurring problem as chronic.
Stephenson residents said they agreed with Suitor and Stoner that they themselves were partially to blame But they also said their current leaders were ineffective, not because of the nature of their positions, but because they didn't care.
in charge of making sure we do our shifts aren't around. After all, they do get paid to make sure the hall's in good condition and everyone does their part." Gabriel Alsina, Guaynavo, Puerto Rico sophomore, said.
"We make the mess and we don't clean it up, but the people
Stephenson Hall Scholarship Hall Director Andrew Bauch of Traer, Iowa, who recently graduated from the University's law program, said, "We probably don't do a good job of shift training and making sure the right supplies are down there. In an ideal world, I'd be much stricter with what I consider cleanliness, but the reality is that I just can't do that. If I got as strict as I needed to be, everyone would be so pissed off that no one would do their shift."
Bauch also said that part of his failure to keep the kitchens clean stemmed from a lack of training on how to do so from the department of student housing.
Erb likewise took some of the responsibility for Stephenson's condition.
"I somewhat blame myself because I never officially trained anyone," he said. He also never enforced what was supposed to be a mandatory training program for the cooks first semester, a fact that he said didn't concern him much.
"I don't really care," he said. "A little raw meat never hurt anyone."
Erb said he and Bauch managed to stay out of trouble with student housing by watching out for each other.
In response, Bauch conceded that his job did involve little details that Erb took care of.
"Andy and I get along really well, though I cover his tail more than he covers mine," he said.
To counter the problem of Stephenson's kitchens, Stoner said he had been discussing possible solutions with Suitor and
Jennifer Wamelink, assistant director of student housing. He said his main difficulty would be convincing Stephenson residents to take care of their hall.
"You either go kick it down their throats like storm troopers, or you try to sell it to them. I mean, I'm not the one that eats there," he said.
Stoner said that, though he would welcome a state inspection, he wasn't sure if it would be more effective than housing's walk through.
Residents said they didn't want to see any government involvement because they worried about the state shutting them down. They said they did want to see changes in their system of inspection and leadership if it caused an improvement in the state of the hall.
Change will certainly occur for Stephenson in the near future, though exactly what will result from it is still uncertain. Of the 48 beds in the hall next year, 26 - just more than half - will be filled by new residents. Erb and Bauch are retiring as the proctor and scholarship hall director, and at the end of next year, Suitor will be leaving the University after he finishes his counseling psychology degree.
"I think that this kind of system may allow for some health code violations and some health concerns," Ostrander said. "I would welcome change in the condition if it led to the hall being a cleaner, healthier place to live."
David Shoemaker, Overland Park sophomore and president of Stephenson Hall, said that he was looking forward to next year.
"I hope that change in leadership will lead to people doing their jobs and taking more ownership in the hall," he said.
— Edited by Leah Shaffer
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