Tufts Dining has reduced work hours for all student dining employees at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center following budget cuts, leaving students concerned about future reductions.
An email sent to student dining staff on Feb. 20 informed them that “executive management” had ordered the elimination or reduction of various positions. As a result, some employees saw their hours reduced, with a few lower-hour positions eliminated entirely.
Patti Klos, senior director of Tufts Dining, confirmed the cuts in an email to the Daily, attributing them to a budget overrun identified in the fall.
“To ensure we remained within our allocated budget for the rest of the year, we modified the number of hours available to student employees each week,” Klos wrote.
She described the move as a corrective measure to ensure “fairness and consistency across locations” and emphasized that student employees remain “an essential part of our team.”
However, affected workers described the changes as sudden and disruptive, adding that they were given little warning. For students who rely on dining hall wages to cover basic expenses, the rationale for cutting their hours remains unclear.
One worker, who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution, said the cuts have intensified existing staffing pressures, particularly during peak hours.
“There are days where it’s just so busy that the full-time workers have to focus on setting things up in the kitchen, in the dish room, so they don’t have time … to clean tables,” they said. “So then it gets just very overwhelming.”
The worker pointed to a perceived contradiction between the university’s budgetary constraints and its recent announcements of major investments.
“Something, for me, that made the whole situation really frustrating was … to constantly see them talk about how we have such generous donations and funding,” they said. “They’re announcing the Tuition Pact and the aquatics center and the new dorm, but also going, ‘Oh, but we don’t have enough money to pay our student workers.’”
The Tufts Tuition Pact — which will make the university tuition-free for students from U.S. families earning less than $150,000 annually — and the new dorm, Pachyderm Place, were announced last year, while the new aquatics center was reported in March.
The financial impact on students has been immediate and personal. The same dining worker, who lives on campus with a meal plan, said the cuts could be serious.
“I’m so glad that I am living on campus with a meal plan, because I would not be able to pay rent or eat,” they said. “Now I’m thinking I’ll have to apply somewhere not at Tufts, because it just doesn’t seem reliable.”
While the immediate cuts appeared to target Dewick, other dining locations may be affected by similar pressures.
Diego Davila-Gil, a junior student worker in Tufts Catering, a branch of Tufts Dining, said scheduling was unpredictable in the department.
“I’ve definitely heard about [fewer] hours and additionally strange hours,” Davila-Gil said. “I think that’s a reflection of trying to minimize how they have to pay employees.”
He also noted that management has recently become stricter about enforcing employee breaks, which he sees as another cost-saving measure.
The university’s broader finances have been under strain. Federal research funding cuts have disrupted labs and student jobs, while Tufts projects fiscal year 2025 spending of $1.27 billion, with 60% going to compensation and benefits.
Klos wrote that the dining department would evaluate student labor needs for next year based on “enrollment, operating hours, and available funding.” She added that the goal is to “maintain the quality and reliability of dining services while being responsible stewards of university resources.”
