Pomona College’s Coop Fountain cafe, known around campus as “the Coop,” has reopened for the spring semester following a month-long closure last fall that resulted from campus-wide staffing shortages. While the reopening sparked excitement across campus for community members who frequent the restaurant, it also raised questions about the current state of the college’s staffing shortage.
Attention was first brought to last semester’s staffing shortage on Nov. 11, when Jose Martinez, General Manager of Dining Services, explained that the Coop would be closed for the following week in order to “ensure the dining halls [were] sufficiently staffed.”
While the restaurant was set to reopen later that month, it ultimately remained closed for the remainder of the semester. Martinez announced this closure in a Nov. 30 email, attributing it to an “unexpected shortage of staff.”
Edward Mac, lead cook at Café 47, a neighboring campus coffee shop, explained that the staffing shortage described by Martinez began in Pomona’s dining halls. With an increasing number of dining hall employees dropping shifts last semester, staff members at both the restaurant and the cafe were asked to move locations and cover these shifts.
In a previous interview with TSL, Mac suggested that this transition of employees from one location to the next reflected management’s reluctance to post vacant positions on the college’s scheduling system so that they could be filled by workers incurring overtime.
This would violate the contract between the union that represents Pomona dining workers, UNITE HERE! Local 11, and the college. The contract states that, if management is aware of a position that will be vacant at least eight hours in advance, it must be posted on the college’s scheduling system to allow other workers to cover the vacancy.
Mac claimed there have been no new changes to this violation since last semester.
“They haven’t changed anything,” he said. “When people have to be out for anything, they’re still not posting their leave for people to cover their shifts.”
Still, the reopening of the Coop comes as a great relief for many people on campus, including one student employee who requested anonymity in order to maintain job security.
After the restaurant’s closure last semester, the student began their employment at Café 47, where they ended up working far more hours than they were used to at the Coop.
“There was one Friday that I worked eight hours,” they said, comparing this to the two or three hours that they used to work. “It wasn’t ideal.”
Now, with the Coop back in business, the student has been able to return to their usual work hours.
According to Martinez, the restaurant’s reopening is a direct result of an improvement in staffing levels. In an email to TSL, he explained that these levels are now “aligned with [the Coop’s] business needs” and that, as long as staffing levels remain favorable, the Coop will remain open for the remainder of the spring semester.
The reopening has garnered positive responses among students.
“As someone who enjoys studying in busy places, I missed having that space on campus,” Wynn Sharp PO ’26 said in a correspondence with TSL. “It has always been a great source of community for me and my friends.”
Wynn centered her response around the workers of the restaurant, expressing her hope for their proper treatment and fair pay.
“We hope that workers on campus are being treated properly and paid fairly for their work,” she said. “Student solidarity with workers is always the most important consideration. We’re incredibly grateful for all the work the workers at the Coop do and love the environment they have created.”
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