Get Herald RSSI was psyched my first year at Brown when I learned that President Ruth Simmons had a new plan that would allow first-years on work-study to have a work-free year so they had time to get attuned to all of what Brown has to offer. I seized the opportunity to spend half my day hanging out in the Ratty or flirting ferociously with my cute neighbor. I was sure the good times were over when I received a letter reminding me to get a job for the next year.
I did what was quickest and easiest (there were signs everywhere and obnoxious people in orange shirts flagging me down), and signed up to work for Brown Dining Services. At first, I was a little turned off by how BuDS would hire anyone - after all, I had experience making coffee, sandwiches and rolling burritos. But BuDS wanted everyone.
In response, I became a BuDS "slut" - working at Jo's, The Gate, the V-Dub, Ratty, bakeshop, catering and almost all the carts before I found my niche in the Ivy Room. While all dining units have a few things in common, it is virtually impossible to make generalizations since they all have their own unique personality and feel. Cashiering amongst the chaos that is Jo's at 2 a.m. on a Saturday is in no way like pouring muffin batter into trays at 5:30 a.m. in the bakeshop.
But for some reason, rolling falafel balls and listening to lesbian rock with a bunch of vegetarians appealed to me. I applied to be a supervisor at the Ivy Room my junior year and became the manager this year.
As supervisor, I was responsible for one night's staff (around nine people) and the general functioning of the Ivy Room for that night. This entailed everything from delegating workers' responsibilities to answering customers' questions about why the strawberry ice cream had a chocolate flavor to it. (The answer is that we poured new mix in without cleaning the machine). The $1 extra per hour to be supervisor is not always worth it.
As manager, I communicate daily with my supervisors and workers, making sure they have the staff and materials to operate. I bring the concerns they or I have about the unit back to a professional management team made up of adults and the student general manager. I also meet weekly with the managers from the other units to discuss changes, ideas and common problems.
Recently, all units have been horrendously understaffed and managers have had to find creative ways to maintain their staffs, whether by working themselves, begging supervisors or other workers to come in for extra shifts or getting help from students at Johnson and Wales University. As Brian Corcoran '06, the manager of the Gate, put it, "The big problem with the job is not having to work long hours, but the anticipation of having to do so, and the fear of the pager going off every two hours on the weekend."
In return for living a perpetually BuDs-dominated life, managers receive $11.60 an hour. The starting hourly wage for workers is $7.60, but pay raises are given every semester based on the number of hours worked, and can add up to pretty hefty pay checks.
Unlike most other jobs one will hold in their life, BuDS is enormously flexible, thanks in part to empathetic student managers and supervisors. A simple plea such as, "I have the biggest chemistry exam of my life tomorrow," will often get you off the hook, and all work hours can be tailored to fit into busy schedules.
Best of all, by working for BuDS, you are guaranteed a glance into a unique power structure. Students won the right for self-management in 1972 thanks to workers who were tired of not having any control over their work environment.
BuDS's structure affords many opportunities to work your way up the management ladder. At few other schools are you given the opportunity to boast on a resume that you have managerial experience running an entire dining unit.
Like any other extracurricular on campus, BuDS is a good way to meet people and develop useful leadership skill. But unlike most other extracurriculars on campus, it pays.
Annie Hatch '06 is the fastest burrito roller this side of Mexico City.
