The sun., 1908-10-04
COLUMBIA'S FOOD PRODLEE
COMMONS rs NOW UNDER THB
MANAGEMENT OF STUDEN1D.

How Much Better They Can Run tho
Uniyersity's Eating Plaee-"gpeeta-
tor" May Yet Make sOme ObjectiohSs
The university commons ct CoIumbia
this year will be in the hanos Of student
managers. a change that IL announced
triumphantly q Morningside Heighta
as pointing TO student control at last.
1t means that the students. who for yesre
have been complaining of the quality
and service Of the food. will have q chance
TO show how II is to be done. IN
But there is one thing that G. r. Jones,
90, the manager, and the class preei-
dents. who will act as his advisers, Will
have to reckon with thing that most
students know very little about, That
thing is the faculty complaint about
food and service.
| OF course with the new faculty club
house over at the 1leth street corner, pn
Broadway there may not be so much Of
that hereafter. But one OF the previous
incumbents Of the job as univ versity res
taurateur used to have his life made
miserable attending to the complaints
of the faculty members. a.. ~.
According to him the professors
wanted more for less money than eny
folks he had run across before. His
prize anecdote was Of one instructor who
came to him in great perturbation one day
and threatened a suit for damages against
the commons. This man eaid he bad
( got ptomaine poisoning from a piece OF
roast beef the day before. ni A.
The managers OF the restaurant nhur-
Tied around and got one Of the men from
the chemistry department, who analyEed
a piece of the beef that happened to be
left over. The professor Of chemistry
gave the beef clean bill of health ~ but
that did not satisfy the other fellow.
who was trying 20 get the commons to
pay his doctor bill. He and his ooi-,
leagues in the faculty had many heated
arguments over the matter , d, e.sa
There used to be another man In the
faculty whose lun cheon was invatiable.'
He ate guava jelly and cream cheese
about every day in the college year,
except one day when some one invited
him to lunch Then he took a steak. e'as
/ Thereafter the commons managers
tried to figure out whether he ate tho
jelly and cheese through choice or ber
cause he didn't believe in eating too much,
when he was paying for it himself. 80
One manager of the university commons,
which has had many managers. by the
way, left its incumbency owing the univ
versity sum- of money due from the per-
centages to be paid. The autho fitieS
wanted that money and they set out ta
try to get it. ,a, .ti
The manager oneTed 10 them a set
90 Al II <.fl.
set, an the univ ersity did it's best to
collect them. A large part Of the sum
was due from members of The faculty
who had signed checks. but subae-
quently simply forget 10 pay them. And
they kept on forgetting for 50 long tirne
that eventually the commons MANAGE
ment never did get the money: Ia
But that never prevented the persons
who did pay their checks from raisinG
a fuss over the items. The usual pro,
cedure was 10 write a note to the manager
announcing that the details were wrong.
Then the manager sprang on the pro-
lessons the checks signed by them,n One
man said plainly that some one must have
forged his name. ~,
These minor matters OF handling the
faculty whose complaints are rarely
less insiStelt than those Of the Students,
have caused much trouble for the persons
who have attempte1 to run the uniyersity,
NDtl SOiuInDld EdIloruD
on the Heights the restaurant for the
students use! TO be downstairs in the
basement Of the old West Hall, .elt.T
The men went in to a lunch counter
took what they wanted and settlelcasl
they came out. There wore no checksi
punched and the commons got pretty
badly stung. That was in the regime of
Huebner as restaurateur. bnsl
The comm ons moved over TO UniyeEaitY,
Hall before he gave up. Then two former.
students Of the university, II. G. Megrua
and r. c. Gaige, took up the burden, and
after two years Of struggling they gave
it over TO j. j. Cowel. who held II for
two years and quit at the end Of the recent
academic year. gid
The vicissitudes have been many
Now the students are taking their whaek
at il. iteA
The trouble is that in the main thera
is only one meal a day at Columbia. The
lunch hour is the busy time. Since the
opening of the dormitories. Hartley and
Livingston halls, there has been more
breakfast and dinner trade, but the prioes,
have to be low, and do not leave any very
large margin for profit. ,.sl a,Ia
just what will be done by the student
management is hard to say. but IL is likely
that the Coiupbid Sperftor will continue
TO have its fair share of objections to high
priced chocolate 6clairs and graham
crackers that used to adorn the columns
of the student publication in succession
under Huebner Megrue and Gaige and
! Coweu. .H. INA s.
| sheen Raising in An stralia. 3sab