If I had a shot for every time Dameca Neal has helped me in Mom’s, I would be in a drunk enough state where I would need help from Dameca in Mom’s.
From Woo Wednesdays to formals, to 21st birthday celebrations, Mom’s Truckstop is the place to go when you need to end your night on a positive note and get some much-needed food, and on these types of nights, Mom’s does get rowdy, loud and chaotic and the only way to keep everything together and keep anyone from getting in trouble is to have Dameca at Mom’s.
The entire campus was shocked to find out that Dameca had been fired from Mom’s and that the reasons for her termination were that she was intimidating, a poor team leader and failed to attend managerial meetings.
Dameca is a vital presence for the third shift at Mom’s because she defuses the chaos of Wooster weekends with her management and maintains a safe environment for students — she is a voice that Wooster needs. Her “intimidating” behavior is not out of maliciousness, but out of care and love for students. In a setting like Mom’s on a weekend or Wednesday night, Dameca’s authority is extremely helpful and a necessity.
Additionally, the reason Dameca could not attend managerial meetings is because they are scheduled at noon, the same time that Dameca needs sleep since she is the third shift manager. It is wrong for Dameca to be fired because of scheduling mistakes on her superiors’ part.
The College of Wooster is supposed to be a place where members of the community are praised and shown gratitude when they impact this community in such positive and caring ways. Instead, the College has chosen to deny their own mistakes and has terminated a worker to whom so many students owe thanks.
I strongly oppose the College’s decision to terminate Dameca because she has proven time and time again that she makes Wooster a better place. In fact, so many students on campus agree with this sentiment that a petition on Change.org has garnered over 1,500 votes to petition against the wrongful termination of Dameca. This petition was started by a current Wooster student, and in addition to current students sharing their own experiences, many alumni of the College have also commented on the petition about their positive and life changing experiences with Dameca.
Along with the petition, a group of Wooster students also hosted a protest against Dameca’s termination, where students could write their experiences with Dameca on posters to show the College that they are making a mistake.
With this enormous eruption of support for Dameca, it is clear that students, both current and past, believe that Dameca makes the College a safe, caring and loving place for anyone. As a school that boasts about how politically active and involved students are, it would be a shameful embarrassment for the College to ignore the voices of students they have so excitedly bragged about in shiny magazines.
Sally Kershner, a Features Editor for the Voice, can be reached for comment at SKershner19@wooster.edu.