Director of Dining Services Mike Newmark denied that The Stein restaurant would close as rumors circulated widely among student employees and the student body that its closing was imminent. "There is no validity to whatever rumors you may have heard about The Stein closing," he wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "The Stein is not closing this year."

Stein manager Michael Wiggins declined to comment and referred all questions to Newmark.

Several Stein employees said that a general staff meeting had been announced for last Monday afternoon only to be canceled at the last minute for unknown reasons. Last Wednesday, Stein employee Liana Langdon-Embry '11 said that after asking about the rumors, she was told by The Stein manager that The Stein would not close, but that "there was talk that they were going to, and they just recently decided not to."

On Tuesday, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick '09, who has been a cook at the Stein for four years, said that the official response of upper Stein management was neither to confirm nor deny rumors. He said he was under the impression that there was a 95-percent chance the Stein would close, with the only question being when. "[Closing it] was very clearly under discussion; that has not been denied to me by the upper management," he said.

He said he had heard that managers were told last Friday that the Stein was going to close. Reichlin-Melnick said that he first heard the news "out of nowhere" from co-workers last Sunday night.

Jenna Rubin '11, a Stein employee for two months and co-chair of the University Dining Committee, said last Tuesday that she first heard the rumor from a Stein employee who reportedly heard the information from a manager. "I certainly hope we could be involved in making decisions about making cuts in dining; I would hope that we could talk about cutting back instead of cutting everything," she said. "Shutting down The Stein is somewhat drastic."

She suggested that shift adjustments could be made reflecting the hours when The Stein is busiest. "I usually work on Sunday nights; it does tend to be slow," she said. "But I walked in there today to talk to the manager, and at eight it was fairly crowded."

Reichlin-Melnick said he thinks The Stein always loses money but noted that in his view this semester there had been particularly heavy losses due to the suspension of the Stein's lunch hours and changes to the menu, which he described as an "almost deliberate attempt to run the place into the ground."

He said The Stein is reliant on subsidies from the University. "At this point it makes sense monetarily [to close The Stein] but it sucks for the 20 us who are out of a job," he said, adding that "this has been the worst semester for business since I've worked there."

Reichlin-Melnick dismissed comments by Newmark earlier this semester that the change in The Stein would help increase "speed of service" and had input from student workers.

He said he thinks the University should inform students before it takes cost-cutting measures.

"Now we sit around and do nothing because there's no business." Reichlin-Melnick said, adding that cutting the most popular dishes from the menu had been intended as a cost-cutting measure, but that the items that cost more to produce sold much better and probably made more profit.

"They pretend to get student input from the menu, [but] they've never taken into account what's popular; they just go and make their own decisions," he said.

The Stein is "still a fun and great place to work," Rubin said, and added that she thought the administration valued student decisions and input. "I'm a little bit disappointed that I had to hear this rumor as a rumor, that I didn't hear it from the administration themselves, but I understand that it's still a difficult process."

Langdon-Embry also pointed out the financial challenges. "I work Friday nights; last semester I would have maybe 10 tables, and this year I'll have like two or three," the student said.

Reichlin-Melnick said Sunday he was glad The Stein was still open so that he still had his job, but that he felt the situation had still been handled poorly. "I still think it's insulting of them to talk about this without ever consulting student employees.