Imagine for a moment that you have just finished your Psych class, it is 1:35 p.m. and you are famished. You were up all night either studying or drinking (which does not matter for the purposes of this thought experiment) and you arrived at your first class five minutes late. Needless to say you skipped breakfast. Anyway, you immediately rush with a classmate or two to one of the several dining options we have at Dartmouth. I like to believe that each place has its own specialty and attitude. The Courtyard Cafe in the Hopkins Center is a great place to eat when I feel like delicious and greasy breakfast food. I dine at Collis when I'm feeling more healthy and cultured. For the record, stir fry with Thai peanut sauce is definitely the way to go. Last but not least, I generally go to Thayer when it is either too late or I cannot decide exactly what I want to eat. The one characteristic that all three venues have in common, however, are unbearably long lines.
By now, you have probably experienced this unfortunate phenomenon for two straight weeks. Do you decide to wait in line for 15 or 20 minutes? Do you head to a different dining hall and hope for better luck? Or are you like me and decide to forget it altogether and come back during an "off-peak" time? This usually means eating lunch around 3 p.m. and dinner after 9 p.m. I will be going to Barcelona in the spring, but I'm not quite ready to switch to a European eating schedule.
As I stared at yet another obnoxiously long line in the hallway at the Hop, I wondered to myself if it was this bad when I first arrived on campus as a freshman. I know that I was part of a "'shmob" or two in my day; did I actually insist on eating with a minimum of 10 Choate residents at all meals? Maybe the problem is not the Class of 2009 at all but is just the result of students of all ages figuring out their schedules and whatever else determines their meal times. Whatever the actual reason, I think I've made my point -- the lines are long.
Before I start being targeted by DDS and am forced to inspect my future double burger deals for some type of "special sauce," allow me to say something else. The food at Dartmouth is fabulous. I love nothing more than listening to my friends at home rant about the disgusting cafeteria food at their respective schools. I proudly retort that I actually look forward to meals at school. I challenge someone to find a tastier dish than a Billy Bob or the poorly kept secret of Food Court, the "Jo Yo." We have great selection and generally solid service. Some might complain about the prices, but let's be honest, it is not real money.
Aside from the lines, one of my only other gripes concerns the salad bar at Food Court. The various ingredients, especially the lettuce, are often nonexistent. Even more frustrating are the frequently empty or worse, frozen, salad dressing dispensers. Inexcusable. Nothing can dampen the mood of an exciting dinner like painstakingly selecting the few remaining decent pieces of lettuce and adding whatever toppings might be left only to find that, of the ten or so dressings, only Thousand Island is unfrozen. On top of this, I have had to eat my salad with a spoon on multiple occasions. Refilling the salad bar and keeping an eye on the silverware could go a long way.
Last weekend, I jokingly suggested a solution to the long line problem as my roommates and I headed back to our room upon deciding that we would try to eat at another time. We should install live webcams that monitor the traffic at the various food establishments. I know that it is possible because my mother claims she can watch me walk across the Green on the Internet. Students could monitor the cameras and decide to eat when lines were short. This would save everyone time and frustration. Maybe we could invest some of the money earned from student slumber parties at Dick's House.
There has been a lot of arguing recently over the College's rankings in the Princeton Review and other notable sources. I think I might actually spend more time in the dinner halls than I do in the classroom. We cannot afford, as an Ivy League institution, to plummet in the dining rankings. Last year, we placed 11th in the "Best Campus Food" category. If we fix these issues, maybe we can crack the top 10 this year.
