The Collegian

Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Opinion

Oliver Hall looks different, but the long lines are here to stay.

Last year, we were promised touch screen computers to order our food. Students were led to believe that there would be a significant change in Oliver Hall. There clearly isn't a whole lot going on there for the students to see. There's an ugly and awkward partition separating the fruit and yogurt bar from the sandwich and salad bars. Every food item needs to be swiped through except fruit and yogurt. Is that food group all of a sudden not important enough to be paid for? We're technically paying for it anyway, but now we don't need to pay for a limited selection of fruit.

More importantly, back to the touch screens. It was mentioned in an article in the spring semester that only one other college in the United States has a touch screen system for ordering food. Have you ever thought of why that is, Sodexho? It's because it's a horrible thing! Touch screens? Was the lunch time rush factored into the plan? What of the dinner rush? Do you not see the problems that have already arisen? It's been less than a month since the start of the new school year and there are already problems.

Those problems are things that have been shifted around and muddled up. Before, during the lunch hour traffic, there was an actual system. There was a method for the students to line up. Now if you are unfortunate enough to have to eat during regular lunch time, you face a large mass of people that don't know where to go. The area the lunch line spilled into is now blocked by two large and aesthetically offensive food bars. The line to swipe your meal card is also outrageously long. That stupid line then spills into the food serving area. That's not fun, administration, it's really not.

A great deal of the new and flashy things described in last year's article already exist. Oh, great, there's supposedly going to be a new deli and salad section. For now, the ones in Oliver Hall are the same as the ones from last year, and, on top of that, the selection of bread is sub-par.

Pizza, pizza, pizza. I don't see my gourmet pizzas anywhere. I see no daily specials at Hot Off the Grill. Just same old, same old.

The card swiping machines also like to randomly hate students. Sometimes my card works without any problems, other times it takes several swipes to get it through. It's extremely disconcerting for a student with the smallest meal plan to see the card swiped three times. There goes half a week of food if the machine had a stupid glitch.

I don't taste a difference in the food. I don't see a positive difference in Oliver Hall. Students without a kitchen in their living residence (basically every non-townhouse resident on campus) has to have a meal plan. I am paying over $4,000 a year to eat food that I don't enjoy in a place that resonates with empty promises and poor service.

However, I must thank the administration for one thing: thanks for commandeering Dryden Hall: I like eating in an air conditioned place.

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