Editorial: Tip discrimination

The Washington Duke Inn's policy of charging an automatic 19 percent gratuity for students paying with points is an unfair policy that needs to stop. Fortunately, the Duke University Student Dining Advisory Committee will vote Monday on a resolution on whether the policy should continue, and although DUSDAC's resolution will only be a recommendation and non-binding, it will carry important sway with administrators. DUSDAC should declare that the current tipping policy is unfair and recommend one where students can decide for themselves how much tip to leave.

The most bothersome element of the current automatic 19 percent tipping system is not the size of the tip--which is probably reasonable for the quality of restaurant--but rather the fact that this policy is kept secret and unknown to student diners. That is, while the menu at the restaurant announces that large parties will have an automatic gratuity added to their checks, nowhere does anything indicate that Duke students will also have an automatic gratuity.

Moreover, the logic for having an automatic tip seems fallacious. The only logic for having an automatic tip is that students will otherwise fail to give one. However, most Duke students are accustomed to eating out, have experience dining in nicer restaurants, and therefore know how to tip appropriately. The fact that students are paying with food points further weakens the argument for an automatic tip--students have little incentive to be stingy with food points and therefore will leave generous tips on points.

An appropriate system on which to model the Washington Duke Inn's tipping is that of The Oak Room, which this semester began allowing students to write in the amount of tip they wish to leave on food points. The system is convenient for both students and waitstaff and gives a diner flexibility in choosing how much or little tip to leave based on the quality of service received. A similar system would work at the Washington Duke Inn.

The key here is the principle that student diners at the Washington Duke should be treated like any other diner and should not be discriminated against in tipping. Just because students attend Duke should not force them into an automatic gratuity, and it is insulting for the inn to argue otherwise.