Dish washing machine fixed after nearly a month

The dish washing machine in Gordon Commons was fixed on Wednesday, Nov. 4, after being out of service since at least Oct. 11, when disposable dishware began appearing in the dining hall. During the outage, students expressed concerns about the excess waste and environmental impact of using disposable cutlery as well as the lack of communication or clear timeline for repairs from the Vassar College administration.

During the outage, two of the dish machine’s three motors were broken and the other was approaching the end of its “operating life,” according to Associate Dean of the College for Campus Activities Dennis Macheska. Macheska announced the outage in an all-campus email on Oct. 13; he sent another email to the student body on Nov. 4 announcing that it was operational again.

Multiple students said they were concerned about how long the dish machine remained out of service, as well as the apparent lack of a clear timeline for fixing it. “Why isn’t there a timeline? Is this, like, some organizational thing?” asked Tobias Fantl ’28. He noted that he had received the initial email about the machine being broken on Oct. 13, but said he saw no updates in Resident District Manager Stephen Scardina’s biweekly dining emails. Steve Zhang ’30 commented, “I think it [would] be a rather simple thing to fix. It shouldn’t be taking up so much time to fix a dishwasher machine.”

On Oct. 29, Macheska wrote to The Miscellany News by email , “We are awaiting the necessary replacement parts and cannot yet provide a confirmed timeline for returning the machine to service.” In a second email on Nov. 2, he clarified, “The machine has required repairs in the past, but this is one of the more significant repairs needed. The time required to source the replacement motors and other necessary parts has extended the outage.” Macheska noted that the machine is seven years old and constant operations put strain on its components. He did not specify the machine’s anticipated lifespan in his Nov. 2 email, two days before announcing it had been fixed. In total, the machine was out of service for around 25 days, including for the entirety of October Break.

During the outage, a dish room employee told the Miscellany that because the machine was broken, everything had to be washed by hand: “We’ve got to work twice as hard because we’ve got to wash the pans and stuff, and they’re big, so it’s easier to throw them in the machine and have them cleaned.” They emphasized that these issues are not new, estimating that the machine may break as often as every two weeks.

While larger repairs are being conducted, Gordon Commons resorts to using disposable dishes and cutlery. Multiple students raised concerns about the sustainability impact of the dining hall using disposable dishware for nearly a month. Fantl told the Miscellany that he felt it was “incredibly wasteful” to throw all of the paper plates and plastic utensils into the trash. He added, “It just feels like we went from maybe being a little more environmentally conscious to now doing absolutely nothing about it.” Zhang felt similarly, saying, “It feels bad to throw away so many plates.”

Director of Sustainability Ken Foster wrote to the Miscellany , “We have not tried to calculate the environmental impact of having to use disposable items.” He did not comment on the excess cost that these disposable items carry. Foster explained that any environmental impacts caused by the dish machine outage were already being mitigated: “We are already using single-use items made from plants, and these have a lower environmental impact than plastic items made from petroleum.” He also wrote that the Office does not know how much excess waste has been generated.

In his Oct. 13 email announcing that the dish machine was out of service, Macheska explained that compost contamination at the dining hall had continued. He wrote, “As a result, we will be discontinuing this effort for now.”

The dining hall’s use of disposable dishware for nearly a month did not affect employees’ regular schedules, Macheska wrote. Some employees were reassigned but not hours were cut. “Safety is always a priority in our dining operations,” Macheska added. “When a piece of equipment is out of service, employees must adjust established workflows and routines to accommodate the change.”

The dish room employee noted, “The College don’t want to spend the money, so they put Band-Aids on it. But it keeps breaking down. So you got to actually fix the machine.” They added, “That way we can come to work and work properly and don’t got to deal with the mental stress and things like that.”

Dish washing machine fixed after nearly a month

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