In early February, a longtime member of Swarthmore’s Dining staff was scalded by an industrial dishwasher in the Dining and Community Commons (DCC), The Phoenix has confirmed. Dining hall workers said that the injury sent the employee to a hospital in Philadelphia. Staff also said that, as of Feb. 15, college administrators had told them there were no updates on his condition and that admin had asked them to respect the employee’s privacy. This article will refer to the injured worker anonymously.
Dining staff members who worked closely with the injured employee told The Phoenix that morale has been quite low in the weeks following the incident. DCC employees, who requested anonymity, described their injured colleague as a “pillar” of the dining hall team, citing his leadership through chaotic shifts and his multiple decades of service. The injury, which staff called traumatic for those who were working that day, has left his close colleagues shaken.
The employee’s family has not responded to a request for comment.
Vice President for Communications and Marketing Andy Hirsch wrote to The Phoenix that counseling is being offered to staff in the aftermath of the injury, linking to the college’s mental health resources offered through AllOne Health. He also mentioned an Interfaith Center gathering for dining hall staff that drew over 40 people last week and said that the college is in regular contact with the injured employee’s family.
“The College will continue to offer its full support, and we hold them all in our thoughts as healing and recovery continue,” Hirsch wrote. “You can imagine how this has affected some of our other staff members who know and, in some cases, are quite close to this individual.”
“He is an amazing person and people are deeply hurt that something like that has happened,” an anonymous employee said.
DCC staff mentioned that the incident was under investigation, and Hirsch wrote that he couldn’t give too many details. Some staff also said they hadn’t been told much about the situation by supervisors. Hirsch wrote that the college brought in an external commercial restaurant repair company to examine the dishwasher and contacted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency responsible for ensuring safe working conditions. Employers are mandated to contact OSHA within 24 hours of a work-related hospitalization. The college “will continue to share information that [OSHA] requests,” he added.
Because the incident involved the dishwasher, the DCC transitioned to disposable dining ware for weeks, prompting inquiry from students. As of Monday, Feb. 16, the usual plates and utensils returned after the machine was brought back to service. Many on campus heard that a required part had been delivered.
Hirsch wrote that “the reality is that several factors led up to this devastating incident,” and that the college has therefore “retrained staff on proper machine operation, added additional operating protocols, and inspected and repaired the dishwasher” before bringing it back to service.
Last week, The Phoenix reported on the demands that late January’s severe winter weather placed on Swarthmore’s staff across campus. In a comment for that article, Associate Vice President for Sustainable Facilities Operations and Capital Planning Andy Feick said that many Facilities staff worked fourteen consecutive days to maintain campus operations, with many staff members staying overnight in Worth Hall and the Swarthmore Inn. These workers told The Phoenix that they received double pay for hours worked during the storm. However, other employees who were unable to reach campus due to the severe weather were not paid for missed shifts and were reportedly unable to apply sick or vacation time retroactively to cover their shifts.
The storm and the injury have both occurred during a time of transition for dining hall workers. Linda McDougall, who had served as Dining Services director since 1990, retired at the end of October. Dining staff and campus communications have indicated that Associate Vice President for Campus Services Anthony Coschignano has taken a more active role in supervising Dining operations in her absence. Hirsch mentioned that the college is in the process of recruiting McDougall’s successor, having narrowed 140 applications down to four finalists who will visit campus in the coming months.
The injury of the employee and the management transition in Dining Services are developing stories.
Xinto Xu ’28 contributed reporting for this article.
