Volume 124 Issue 62
kansan.com
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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CAMPUS
Dining prepares feast for tonight
BRITTANY CLAMPITT editor@kansan.com
If feeding a family for Thanksgiving is no easy feat, then feeding more than 2,000 hungry college students is a colossal undertaking. But every year, KU Dining Services pulls out all the stops by hosting Thanksgiving dinner in each of the three campus dining centers before students head home for break.
Everything about the dinner is on a large scale — from the number of guests to amount of food. Tonight, KU Dining Services will use 42 tom turkeys totaling 1,020 pounds in addition to 360 pounds of roast turkey breast and 540 pounds of ham, along with side dishes and desserts.
First-year students who are not aware that tonight is different from a normal evening in the dining hall are in for a surprise.
The amount of food has to feed the large number of people anticipated to partake in the copious meal. Sheryl Kidwell, assistant director of KU Dining Services, said the Thanksgiving meal is popular among not only current residents but also people who used to live in the residence halls and have friends or siblings with meal plans. International students, as well, take interest in the American tradition.
Freshmen Hannah Glatter from Kearney, Neb., and Adam Chase from Shawnee said they were not aware of the special dinner, but they now want to round-up their friends for a big, family-style Thanksgiving.
According to data collected by Kidwell, 2,282 student meals — about 74 percent of all meal plans — along with nine paid guests and 69 guest passes were served at Thanksgiving dinner in 2010 for a total of 2,360 meals. The total number of diners has been decreasing since 2008 and this year, even fewer are expected to attend because the Corbin Hall dining area is closed for renovations. Those women who live in Corbin will not be neglected. Barbara Wilson, manager of the Corbin Dining Center, is planning a smaller and more intimate Thanksgiving gathering in the Corbin lobby with food catered in from Mrs. E's.
"A couple of them were asking if we could turn on the fireplace, make it really homey," Wilson said.
Kidwell said KU Dining Services has hosted Thanksgiving dinner in
THANKSGIVING BY THE NUMBERS
Students expected at KU Dining Services
KU Dining Services will use
1. 02Q
Pounds of turkey
At 2010 Thanksgiving
SOURCE: KU DINING SERVICES GRAPHIC BY BEN PIROTTE
all her 29 years with the University. The event requires extensive planning, with discussions beginning in the spring of each calendar year. Thanksgiving dinner is classified by KU Dining Services as a Level 3 event: one that takes an extensive menu and a large amount of food and decorations. KU Dining Services workers are already preparing for the droves of people that are expected to attend.
The meal will feature traditional Thanksgiving foods and begin at 4:30 p.m. at Mrs. E's and Oliver dinsings and at 5 p.m. at Corbin. The dining halls will be closed from 2 p.m. until the beginning of dinner meal set up.
"That's probably the biggest thing that we do, is we have to forecast. But we've gotten pretty efficient," Kidwell said.
- Edited by Laura Nightengale
RACHEL SALYER
editor@kansan.com
Tyler Powers, a sophomore from Augusta, put on his drum major costume and headed out for the night.
It was Halloween weekend, and that Saturday, Oct. 29, he and his friends hopped on an unusually packed SafeBus and headed to Tennessee street.
Powers and his friends were only a few of the 2,562 rides given by Safety Bus that might a 117 percent increase
from Halloween weekend in 2010 and SafeBus' highest numbers since the program started in 2007.
Despite enrollment being down this year, SafeBus has seen its numbers increase as a whole, with ridership increasing by 55 percent from last year. With SafeBus adding Thursdays to the schedule, it has seen an 81 percent ridership increase in comparison with August through October 2010.
SafeBus and SafeRide are funded through a student fee of $12.10 per student every semester and Student Senate oversees the program.
"It was definitely packed to capacity," Powers said. "You saw a lot of different characters, all types of people were on it."
Casey Briner, student senate transportation coordinator, assists in overseeing the use of the money and wants students to use the service.
"It is roughly $605,000 a year to fund the program," Briner said. "We hope it is money well spent, and that students think so too."
Briner was surprised by the Halloween weekend numbers, but hopes the number increase reflects student's enjoyment for the program.
"We saw the numbers and were taken aback," Briner said. "We are so
SafeBus and SafeRide, like all KU on Wheels programs, are run through MV Transportation, but Student Senate is responsible for the promotion of the program. Briner attributes the number increases to more student outreach than they have done in the past.
"We are tabling more than ever," Briner said. "We went to every orientation, we go to info fairs and we partnered with the Jayhawk Buddy System. We are trying to get to as many students as possible."
Powers, a transfer student from Wichita State, said he learned about and used the program while visiting
SEE BUS ON PAGE 3
Index
CLASSIFIEDS 11
CROSSWORD 4
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
SPORTS 12
SUDOKU 4
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2011 The University Daily Kansan
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