By: Analyse Jester

On campus restaurants have been closing down due to low staff lead by a decrease in student participation in the Room and Board Program. The program helps international and lower income students afford housing and food at OU by working a minimum of 18 hours for on campus restaurants.  

The program is struggling to maintain their employees, according to OU’s student matrix, even though the class size increases each year. Working conditions for the program have not improved, and hours have increased from 12 to 18 over the past few years. 

Helen Payne, who worked at Quiznos her freshman year, had to deal with harassment from a male coworker while the management did nothing to interfere. 

“There were times when I felt uncomfortable with a coworker and many of my co-workers also felt uncomfortable, so we told the manager,” Payne said. “Nothing was done and this continued for months upon months. They are so understaffed they would rather keep someone who has touched women without their permission, than fire him.”

After dealing with the harassment her freshman year, Payne decided to find other routes to pay her way through college. 

“I would rather be in debt than do Room and Board again, and that’s saying something,” Payne said. 

Daniela Pallares, a current junior who worked at Dunham Residential Colleges for Room and Board her freshman year, believes the program is beneficial but should be improved. 

“I did find myself struggling a lot and sort of feeling jealous about others that didn’t have to work as much as I did,” Pallares said.

Any missed hours had to be made up during that pay period, with no exceptions. Many students in the program found themselves coming into work sick, because making up the missed hours would have been detrimental to their grades.

“I actually was sick once for 2 weeks, and they were trying to have me make up 36 hours

of work during midterms and honestly it was really hard so I just wasn’t able to make up the hours,” Pallares said. “I had to pay out of pocket for the rest of the room and board, it was about $3,000.”

While many students in the program feel they have to deal with unfair working conditions and strict policies, quitting can seem like the better option. The number of students who quit throughout the semester has left the program understaffed, causing many on-campus restaurants to close. Although the student population size has increased over the years, restaurant closures have caused issues with food availability for students.