Following a nearly year-long debate that elicited strong reactions from students on both sides, Dining Services on May 9 announced that both Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Halls will go trayless beginning in the fall.
The decision followed the results of the 13-day pilot program that ran in Carmichael after spring break this semester.
The pilot, run by members of the Fall 2009 Experimental College (ExCollege) class Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing, found that removing trays from dining halls reduced electricity use by 11.4 percent and food waste by 29 percent, which is in line with savings from trayless programs at other institutions, according to Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos.
Student research found that trayless dining could save 4,928 kilowatt hours of energy, enough to power an average home in Massachusetts for eight months.
The decision to go trayless was a logical conclusion, Klos added, given Tufts' strong commitment to sustainability.
"The results were compelling," Klos said. "We were at the crossroads, and this seemed to be the right decision to make."
University President Lawrence Bacow applauded the trayless movement's proponents for taking action.
"I congratulate the students who initiated this move," Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. "Their research demonstrated that going trayless reduces energy, water, and food waste. It is the environmentally responsible thing to do."
Trayless dining is a noticeable initiative that will hopefully encourage people to think about other sustainable behaviors, according to Tina Woolston, project coordinator for the Office of Sustainability and co-teacher of the class.
"The beneficial thing about it being visible is that it jumpstarts people thinking about sustainable issues," Woolston said. "In order for people to change their behaviors, they have to be aware of their behaviors."
The decision to go trayless, however, has met with opposition that has at times been fierce. In a close 14-13 vote showing the divided sentiments on the issue, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on April 4 passed a resolution stating that going trayless inconveniences diners.
Rising juniors Jonathan Danzig and Cory Faragon, outgoing senator and Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) community representative, respectively, submitted the resolution, titled "A Resolution Supporting Alternatives to Trayless Dining."
"For students who prefer to have trays, it wasn't about the trays themselves, as much as it is about providing a fair and convenient dining experience to students," Danzig said.
A main concern was that without trays, students would have to make multiple trips to get food. Danzig noted that, given this decision, exploring different plate options and obtaining larger cups are essential for student convenience.
Dining Services has already begun reevaluating eating implements as well as the placement of food in the dining halls in response to student comments, according to Klos.
"We're buying larger cups and looking at other dishes to make sure that we're providing reasonable plates and utensils," Klos said. "We're also looking at how things are laid out in dining rooms so that things are [as] accessible as possible."
Klos added that it is difficult to determine how representative the opposition to going trayless is of the entire student body. She noted that the Senate resolution passed by one vote with six people absent.
Another complaint has been that students want to see the money savings from the reduction in food waste and energy manifested in lower cost meal plans, according to Danzig.
"If [Dining Services] is saving as much money on trays as the trial period indicates, I believe that most students would like to see the savings passed on to them," Danzig said.
Klos emphasized, however, that going trayless is not a cost-cutting measure, but rather an important step toward environmental sustainability.
"It's not going to save a lot of money, frankly," Klos said. "The potential electricity savings [in] dollars is less than $4,000 annualized, which is less than $8 per student on a meal plan."
The actual implementation of the trayless initiative, which originated in the ExCollege class, is thanks to approximately seven students who continued working on the project even after the class concluded in December, according to Dallase Scott, a graduate student in the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning program who co-taught the class.
"I am incredibly proud of these students," Scott said. "The fact that they followed through and were persistent is amazing and well-recognized by the campus."
The actualization of trayless dining in the dining halls sets a precedent for student initiatives on campus, according to rising junior Alex Freedman, a former member of the class.
"The fact that this started as a conversation and went through the process to become a real thing is really exciting," Freedman said.
