In the last meeting of the semester, Boston University Student Government Senate brought in representatives from BU Dining Services to debate the future of Make A Difference Monday and hear about potential vegetarian dining options.
Sabrina Pashtan, BU Dining sustainability coordinator, and Robert Flynn, social media coordinator, addressed two Senate proposals on the table — one to endorse the removal of Make A Difference Monday and the other to advocate for the addition of “Meatless Mondays.” However, SG does not have the power to officially make either of these changes.
Make A Difference Monday began as a compromise several years ago when students requested the implementation of Meatless Mondays. BU Dining instead introduced Make A Difference Monday, offering healthier food options, some with meat, and reducing BU’s overall carbon footprint, Pashtan said.
BU Dining representatives stressed their commitment to addressing student input, specifically through an annual survey released to all students Monday, Flynn said.
“Right now, that’s our biggest push. We want as many students to take the survey as possible,” he said. “The more input we can get, it’s better for all of us…[to] continue this dialogue that you guys have on a weekly basis and with us. We have a person doing our Twitter seven days a week. Engage that person.”
Flynn and Pashtan said 1,200 students have completed the survey so far.
“That’s going to give us a really good idea about where students stand on the Meatless Monday-Make a Difference Monday issue,” Pashtan said. “We really do take into consideration the responses in how we make decisions for next year.”
The Senate formed an ad hoc committee at a previous Senate meeting on Nov. 17 to debate the elimination of Make a Difference Monday or its potential replacement, Meatless Monday. Austin Kruger, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and one of the leaders of the committee, said the panel has met and is still coming up with proposals and goals.
“We’re working to create a common proposal that basically meets both of groups’ needs,” he said. “We’re all trying to brainstorm. That is basically the idea of this whole ad hoc idea.”
Following the question and answer portion of the meeting with the BU Dining representatives, Avi Levy, a senior and senator for CAS, moved to remove the proposals completely due to the creation of the ad hoc committee.
That movement was struck down, with 17 in favor, 21 opposing and one abstention. The proposals will stay on the table through next semester until they are voted on.
Multiple Senate members and executive board officers said they felt positively about BU Dining’s visit to the meeting.
“It was good that someone from the dining hall came and explained to us all the questions that we had, all the concerns that we had about Make A Difference Monday,” said Tania Davila, a sophomore representative from the School of Hospitality Administration. “That was good because it made us realize things we didn’t know before.”
Senate Chair Tyler Fields said BU Dining’s visit creates a conversation between student leaders and BU employees.
“BU Dining coming in offered real dialogue, and this is the best audience you can get in terms of a diverse student population, so by them answering questions, that’s going to educate significant numbers,” he said.
Fields said the future of Make A Difference Monday is unpredictable.
“It’ll be interesting to see what the ad hoc committee comes up with,” he said. “I imagine they’ll both [the current proposals] be voted on eventually. Unless the ad hoc committee comes up with a very comprehensive proposal that makes a lot of people happy, we might have three very different proposals being voted on.”
Sabina Razak, executive staffer to the vice presidents, said SG might be focusing on the wrong issue altogether.
“A lot of the concerns are just with the food itself, not necessarily the options,” said Razak, a freshman in CAS. “[At] the last Senate meeting, people were just talking about how the food options aren’t that great, how the food just needs to taste better. So I think that should be their priority, instead of focusing on whether it should be Meatless Mondays.”
