Interview with the SMC 2019-20
Written on February 28th, 2020 by {"login"=>"jcbitshyd", "email"=>"journal@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in", "display_name"=>"Journal Club, BPHC", "first_name"=>"", "last_name"=>""}What comes under the purview of the SMC?
The Students’ Mess Council deals with all things pertaining to/in the messes. This includes the ANC, Juice, Frankie and puff stalls. We deal with everything from the menus, food quality checks to kitchen hygiene. However, it is important to remember that we are a bridge between, the caterers, General Body and administration.
What are some of the misconceptions the GB has about the SMC?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that people believe we hold unlimited power. While that would have been nice, that is not the case. At the end of the day, we still have to consult the admin before we can take any action. On a more day to day basis, a large portion of the GB does not believe we take pre-emptive measures to ensure that the food served does not contain any “foreign items.” All the mess workers are made to wear hairnets and gloves to prevent things like hair from going into the food.
One thing that people have to consider is that when food is being prepared for 3000+ plus people, it is close to impossible to make sure every plate of food is identical, but we take active measures to ensure that everyone receives food of the same quality and that there are no hiccups.
We would also like to reiterate that we exist to represent the GB, not the admin or mess workers, a narrative that has been spun around way too much.
How easy/hard is it negotiating with the caterers? (difference between desired and achieved outcome)
It completely depends on the quality of the menu and the types of dishes we are trying to provide. Given that we do work on a constraint budget, there will always have to be some compromise or the other. For example, the GB wanted two chaat items per week for snack, they require time overnight to prepare, something that the mess workers usually don’t have since they are occupied with the ANC during the night. To accommodate the requests of the GB, we instructed them to close the ANC earlier on Fridays so that they can use that time to prepare for the next day’s snacks. Since the footfall of the ANC is relatively less on Friday’s anyway owing to the Dry Dinner, we found this to be a good compromise that keeps that majority satisfied.
We also aimed to add Amul ice cream in place of Seasons during our tenure, something which has been implemented. Given that this ice cream is more expensive coupled with the fact that we were introducing new dishes increased the cost significantly and we spent 7 days negotiating with the caterers to bring the price down to what it is now. In the recent past, there have been things like GST and inflation which also have to be considered when deciding prices. These things apply to other necessities such as water and electricity – both of which are paid for by the mess, not the admin.
As of now, we are not allowed to share the contract on a public forum, we are trying to get the required permission from the admin so that we can do so. In the meantime, if any member of the GB wants to see it/has any questions regarding it, they can PM any SMC member.
What do you do when you receive a complaint on the SMC group?
When we receive a severe complaint (like the feathers in the chicken), we take it directly to the admin, meet with them and decide how to go about it. In other cases, we tend to document complaints in batches of 5. The following day, we take them to the respective caterers, hear their explanation as to why the mistake was made and then accordingly try and come up with measures to prevent such an event from happening again and what compensation should be there (if any). We strongly believe that emphasis should be put on coming up with preventive measures over just blindly asking for compensation each time there is an error.
Why has the menu been changed so many times this semester on such short notice?
We’ll admit, there has been an error from our part here. Throughout the semester there has been a lot of miscommunication between us and the caterers with regards to what to do if a particular dish isn’t possible. The menu we made initially did not factor in the time and availability of ingredients in the market which resulted in a lot of last-minute changes.
Additionally, whenever a change was made, more often than not, the caterers informed us after they had already prepared the replacement dish, not giving us the chance to do anything but just pass the message on to the GB.
In the recently concluded meeting, we believe we’ve discussed everything to such an extent that the number of last-minute changes will be far less than what we’ve been experiencing up till now. We have made a temporary menu for now which was made keeping in mind the availability of goods in the market, the season and preparation time. We will continue to take feedback from the GB and will confirm the menu shortly after midsems.
What does 'unavailability of X' in the market mean - why can the other mess find it in the market when one can't? Also, shouldn't mess be planning for scarcity?
As stated earlier, till now, whenever there was an unavailability, the caterers dealt with it themselves, making a dish to go in place without informing us beforehand. Post the recent meet, this will not be the case moving forward and fines will be imposed if menu changes are made regularly.
With regards to why one mess can get it while the other can’t there are 2 factors –
- There are some ingredients which the messes get from different vendors, so occasionally there are chances where one vendor has it and the other does not.
- The difference in the number of people in mess 1 and mess 2. If a particular good is supplied by the same vendor and they are limited in supply, it is much easier for them to give the stock to mess 2 as their requirements are less. This is why sometimes a dish is unavailable in just one of the two messes.
Are the Frankie, juice and puff stalls independent of the mess? How does their functioning work?
All the stalls/food counters stationed in the mess are not independent of the mess and they fall under the purview of the SMC. We have actively been working over the past semester to bring new options to the mess and we do have some other stalls in the pipeline ready to bring in when the time is right. The stalls that we pitch then coordinate and negotiate with the mess workers, we just facilitate the process of bringing them together.
Unfortunately, we cannot release those contracts to the public.
There was talk of an inspection to take place at the meeting that happened last week. Any updates on that?
The inspection was done by the members of the SMC on Sunday, we were joined by 2 other members of the GB. The inspection was also video recorded and if any member of the GB wants to see it, they can PM any SMC member.
The surprise checks that were talked about are also going to be conducted by a health committee, headed by Profs Sounak Roy and Onkar Kulkarni.
There is a set criterion in place by which the hygiene of the kitchen will be judged which includes but is not limited to cleanliness of cooking area, temperature of the storage area, expiry dates of all the products, hand washing facilities etc. The report of our recent inspection has also been shared on FB.
Do you think the backlash you're facing is justified?
There are definitely places in which we’ve fallen short in our tenure and we have done our level best to keep improving. All the constructive criticism we face, we take in our stride and work towards providing a better mess experience for every student on campus. For example, a lot of people expressed distaste for 'Gatte ke Sabzi' which we removed almost immediately.
That being said, we do feel like the rants and memes that have been surfacing recently aren’t helping anyone’s cause. If there are genuine concerns, we already have a mechanism in place to deal with them, something that has worked when people bring up complaints in a sophisticated manner. A lot of the “action” that has been advocated for hasn’t been thought of thoroughly. We were asked multiple times to fire the caterers and hire new ones, but that isn’t possible simply because the administration has clearly told us we cannot do so. Little thought has also been put into who would take up the responsibility of the SMC if we resigned/were impeached.
We received feedback saying that since the arrival of additional paid food options in the mess, the quality of the mess food was going down. In response to such feedback, suspending the paid options was a logical decision to make, yet we faced a lot of backlash for that.
As a matter of fact, the admin requested us multiple times to delete the Facebook group but given that it is the easiest portal for students to register their complaints, we convinced them to let it stay. That being said, the group has been misused in the recent past, to come up with solutions, the problems need to be presented in a manner that can be shown to the caterers and administration, not memes.
Whenever we get a genuine concern, we do our best to rectify it ASAP. Unfortunately, some of these concerns get buried within the spam of memes, rants and sarcastic posts.
All in all, we just want people to remember at the end of the day, we are here to represent them, not oppose them in anyway. If complaints are given, especially in a way that can be presented to the officials, they will definitely be dealt with.
Updates on the fines and compensations?
An official letter detailing all the fines and compensations will be posted outside both the messes and it will also be emailed to the members of the GB.
What action was taken with regards to the eve teasing some girls faced?
We removed the 3 workers that were involved in the most serious offences. We conducted a meet with all the mess workers and told them what they were doing wrong, gave them harsh warnings. The ones that had allegations against them and were not removed were assigned duties within the kitchen during the mess hours. The admin has also instructed us to bring up issues with them first from now on before taking any action of our own.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Given the number of complaints recently, we have taken the decision to strip things back down to the basics. We had a long meet with the caterers, came up with a menu that we think is both good and feasible. Based on how successfully things start to run now, we will start adding new things to the mess.
There have also been comparisons between our mess and those in other colleges. While we are more than happy to take good ideas from other messes outside, we feel that some of the comparisons are made without keeping a lot of factors in mind. For example, when compared with Goa, price comparisons are difficult to make given that they do not have a grace system in place, snacks are charged separately and they do not have gala dinners. Caterers have been requesting us for a while to remove the grace system and pay and eat during fests but we continue to push them to let it stay.