OU Room and Board is a program that helps students fund their way through College by working for on-campus restaurants, although the program has experienced a decrease in participation. 

Each fall semester, the population size of OU has increased according to the University Snapshot. Although the restaurants available for on campus dining have decreased. 

Room and Board, which is in charge of providing a majority of employees for on-campus dining, has struggled to maintain student employees. In exchange for free housing and food students work a required 18 hours per week. However, students who have participated in the program feel a disdain for how they were treated, often feeling pressure to work while sick.

“I just didn’t have wiggle room in my schedule to not come in sick,” Zoe Gartner said,  a junior at OU and former Room and Board student who worked at Dunham Residential Colleges for two years . “But I just feel like they don’t understand I can’t afford to miss hours and then then be on my case about it the entire month about making it up.” 

Although, gartner was not the only employee who served food while ill. witnessed many of her co-workers clock-in to work while sick. 

“I think everyone else does the same thing, instead of calling in people will put a mask on. So no one calls in sick if they’re really sick because we have to get those hours.” she stated. 

Sage Edwards, an OU alumni who participated in Room and Board for two years. Edwards worked at Quiznos in the Union during her time as a student employee. During her time working for Room and Board also felt pressure to work while sick. 

“I definitely avoided skipping work because I didn’t want the added stress of making up the hours and it was also just really difficult to make up the hours,” Edwards said. 

When asked to speak about their program, the managers and supervisors were unwilling to provide statements. 

Meeting the minimum hours can be difficult under differing circumstances, although pressure to meet the hours often makes students feel the need to work while sick. This pressure may be part of the reason students are quitting and leaving the program understaffed.