Students confronted administrators on a variety of concerns regarding the food service provider and new library hours at the Chancellor’s Roundtable Monday in Davies Center.

Some of the concerns included the quality of produce and nutrition of the Sodexho’s food.

“I feel like I’m gaining a ‘sophomore 15’ just from the choices we have at Hilltop,” sophomore Lee Hericks said during the meeting.

“The main issue is: how is the food service working out?” Student Senate President Sarah Schuh said, opening the Sodexho portion of the Roundtable discussion.

Schuh and dining officials asked students to make comments on the food and any problems they had with the provider.

Students were concerned with the limited vegetarian options and sensitivity to dairy products.

A complainant said she was offered veggie soup with chicken broth as a vegetarian alternative.

Some students expressed a desire for soy-based milk products instead of the all-dairy milks served around campus.

Students also raised the issues of pricing and availability of products.

Vice Chancellor Andy Soll responded to a question of the increase in the price of the meal plan by stating that the price went up from $705 to $740.

Of the $740, $20 went toward food points used to buy food and $15 went toward operating costs, Soll said.

Sodexho also is responding to comments made by students about the loss of value meals like those offered last year at Burger King, Soll said.

Value meals will be introduced today (Thursday), he said.

Matt Flaten, Student Senate vice president, said he wanted more attention paid to restocking items in the coolers, especially chocolate milk.

During the meeting, senior Richard Lewan of the Campus Greens pulled out a No. 2 recyclable plastic jug. Lewan said he retrieved it from a Sodexho trash can and asked an employee to confirm that it had been discarded, but not sorted into the recycling receptacles. This is in violation of Sodexho’s contract with the university, Lewan said, referring to the improper disposal of recyclable containers.

Director of food service Gary A. Prellwitz said student input is vital to improving the service.

“A larger, more prominent suggestion box has arrived,” Prellwitz said. “We just have to put it up.”

Soll and Prellwitz agreed that another good way for students to get involved in the operations of the dining service is to attend dining committee meetings at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays.

The other half of the roundtable was focused on the elimination of 24-hour library hours.

“Basically what people have been asking for is a 24-hour study space,” McIntyre Library director Robert Rose said.

The elimination of the library hours was based on three principles kept in mind when considering programs cuts due to the budget, he said.

“The first was to save permanent staff positions,” he said. “The second was to save the collections budget for books, and the third is to reduce the budget with the least impact on the smallest number of people.”

The library will be open 24 hours for finals week, he said, but, during other weeks, the number of students in the library at the late hours doesn’t justify the costs of staffing the six-story building.

After the suggestions were made, Rose said he was sorry he didn’t begin investigating a 24-hour study space earlier, but will pursue the cause now.

Mash said he wants the next roundtable to be focused on the role of students as citizens of Eau Claire.

Sometimes students drink alcohol on Water Street, Mash said, and later end up causing excessive noise, property destruction and other unlawful activity.

“A lot of students,” he said, “get painted with the same brush as students who cause these problems.”