Adams Group Opts To Shelve Cutbacks In Breakfast Plan

Adams House students and kitchen personnel yesterday unanimously rejected the Food Services' proposal to introduce scaled-down continental breakfasts in all but five Houses.

Neil W. Gross '77, Adams House CHUL representative, said yesterday that on the strength of the mandate he would vote against the "abbreviated breakfast proposal" when it comes to the attention of a general meeting of the CHUL on Wednesday.

Gross said the Adams House meeting was "a formal attempt to get students aware" of a petition that has been circulating in Adams House for two weeks to block the proposed reduction in breakfast outlay.

The petition, which has roughly 250 signatures, states that "we do not feel that the projected savings to students are commensurate with the inconvenience to us or the hardships caused the personnel who work in the kitchens."

Frank Weissbecker, director of the food services, initiated the plan last month because of budgetary pressure from the administration.

Neither Gross nor Luther Regin '76 and Neva Seidman '78, who helped write the petition, feel that Wessbecker is personally committed to the cut-back, which, they say, does not involve substantial savings.

"It's a proposal that is unpalatable to most people that was sent up as a trial balloon," Regin said yesterday. Seidman agreed, saying that "at this point I'm not even sure who's pushing the proposal."

The proposal which would provide full breakfasts at only five Houses and breakfasts of toast, milk, juice, and cereal at the other eight, would save approximately $11 of student fees in 1976 and $18 the year after that. Gross said the savings would be reflected as a "lesser increase" in board fees next year.

Mary King, the shop steward who led the dining workers at the meeting, said Sunday that although the proposal involves no direct layoffs, she does not believe they can avoid layoffs because the other shifts are already full."

Students at the meeting said that projected savings would not result from the lower volume of food served, but rather from gradual attrition in staff numbers.