Students receive verbal abuse from fellow APU students.
Growing up, most of us were taught to respect and love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. APU is a place where the community is treasured and is something most of us get to experience in a positive manner. For others, the community has actually been a huge downfall.
Student workers at the Den have been experiencing a huge amount of hostility from other APU students as of late and they can’t help but wonder why. At APU a huge amount of emphasis has been put towards respecting others and the concept of getting along but when some of our peers get a bit too hangry, all of these values are temporarily lost. Some actions taken towards Den workers do not properly reflect APU’s cornerstone of community.
Lillian Powers, a senior at APU and student manager at the Den, describes an encounter she had with a student when the salad station wasn’t open.
“I was working pizza with one other person and we were swamped. We only had pizza, pasta and burgers open at the time. Someone got in line for salads and I politely walked over and let him know that salads were closed for the time being because we were understaffed. He walked away and screamed ‘When is salads ever open? I’ll tell you when. Never!’”
Yelling at someone for such a small matter is completely unacceptable and unprofessional. If you really wanted a salad, Paws N Go is right next door. They have a variety of different types of salads.
Powers also explains some of the kindness she has seen but also expresses her thoughts for the future.
“This semester I’ve actually seen more kindness and patience than previous semesters. But I mean it’s only the first month, so maybe the freshmen aren’t annoyed…yet. I hope things at the Den don’t get worse, but I do think at some point our customers are going to get sick of it.”
Most students have time to wait in line, but as it gets deeper into the semester, students are less likely to wait in the long lines of the Den.
Jasmine Uriostegui, a junior at APU and student supervisor at the Den, also speaks about an unpleasant encounter she had with a student who desperately wanted a burger.
“So I had closed the burger line because we were very short staffed and out of burger buns. I was cleaning the front grill when this guy comes over and stands there for a minute, so I asked him if he needed anything. He said he wanted a burger. I said ‘sorry, grill is closed for the night.’ He gives me a confused look and goes ‘Are you F***ing serious? F*** you!’ I keep quiet because I kind of need to keep my job, then he leaves. The guy comes back, fills little containers with ketchup and barbecue sauce and throws them at the fridge behind the burger station. How ridiculous!”
Not only do these workers experience verbal abuse from shouting customers but they have also had to deal with a number of students who will physically make a mess if they don’t get what they want. Such as the individual who threw ketchup and barbeque sauce at the fridge, someone had to clean that up.
Students such as these make APU a less friendly environment and may be a leading contributor as to why so many student workers have quit the Den.
Actions such as these are incredibly disrespectful and should have consequences. Individuals who do enact these types of actions should have some sort of repercussions.
I think it would be too hard to ban someone from the Den but it wouldn’t be hard to take down a name and use that against him. Kind of like, three strikes and you’re out but instead of three, every student is allowed two passes. After a student gets caught after his second public scene, then more serious repercussions can take place such as a small fine. Some might say that a small fine might be a bit extreme but when it comes to safety, a small fine is close to nothing and would prevent students from acting up if they knew it would cost them actual money.
In order to catch these individuals, APU should have campus security workers patrol the Den every now and then to make sure no one is enacting any form of verbal harm on our Den workers.
Having a campus security representative around would discourage any students from causing a scene and in the chance that they do, campus safety will already be there to act accordingly and handle the situation.
It takes people to run the Den and people should be treated with honor, dignity and respect. Everyone would have a much pleasant experience if students practiced this when ordering food at the Den.