This post was written by Hatchet reporter Ashley Larkin.

The student-run Dining Services Commission is jump-starting its use of social media to solicit student input, after a semester of little outreach.

The DSC has struggled throughout the year to connect with students, and its Twitter and Facebook accounts have lain dormant for months.

“We’re working on getting it started, getting it bigger,” DSC chair Ben Leighton said. “We’ve been retweeted by the SA and by the GW Twitter. We’re mostly just publicizing the changes we’ve made.”

On its “GW Dining” Facebook page, recent posts include a photo album showcasing J Street’s improved salad bar, and an announcement about free dessert if the page reaches 300 “friends” by the end of February. As of Friday, it had 210. Several posts from January advertise new entrées and deals held weekly at the café.

But prior to the start of this semester, posting on the DSC’s Facebook and Twitter was sparse, with updates coming months apart. One tweet in October announced an X-Box giveaway if the Facebook page could reach one thousand friends. The Twitter account has 82 followers.

Leighton said the DSC’s main goal is to gain feedback through Facebook, Twitter and a website preparing for launch soon.

“Occasionally you can get a couple good meals, but everything else pretty much sucks,” freshman Hunter Scott said. “I think it’s funny how Sodexo works at prisons so I always joke that we’re getting prison food.”

While the DSC promoted its Twitter account on flyers and posters at the beginning of the year, Leighton said the most effective way to inform the student body of its existence is through word of mouth.

“If you go on Facebook and you see 50 friends have ‘liked’ GW Dining, I think that will do a lot,” he said. “When people notice the changes we’re making, they’ll be more interested and more supportive. People respond to changes and action.”