Call her Dorothy … call her Dottie … but most students who dine in the Student Dining Room know her as “Dee.” And according to folks who “like” the University of St. Thomas on Facebook, she is the unofficial “favorite thing about UST.”
On Thursday, Sept. 8, a question was posed to the St. Thomas community on Facebook: “Now that school is back in session, we thought a fun contest was in order. Please answer this question - What is your favorite thing about UST?”
Among the answers was a shout-out from UST senior, Ricky Konerza, to his favorite card swiper who has greeted him every morning for breakfast since he was a freshman. “Dee’s just the best thing about UST; that’s just how it is,” Konerza said yesterday when asked why he decided to leave the comment. “I hated having to get up early, but it was always nice to see her in the mornings when I went for breakfast.”
Konerza’s comment was the obvious winner, leaving the competition in the dust with the most popular submission to the contest by far. He was awarded a St. Thomas sweatshirt. In honor of being named “favorite,” Dee was reunited with Konerza, whom she still refers to as Richard, and was presented with flowers and an “I ‘like’ St. Thomas” T-shirt – a nod to the contest’s Facebook origins.
Dorothy Piper has worked in Dining Services for 15 years. She was surprised yesterday when she was pulled from her card-swiping post by her supervisor. “At first I thought I was getting called to the carpet,” she said. She was pleased to learn that she’d been recognized by the students she sees every day: “I love all my students – I enjoy my job very much.”
