STUDENT LIFE ‘mdash; It might not be a bad idea to start stockpiling oily cartons of Sierra Summit wok noodles in your minifridge ‘mdash; because even if you’re not a John Muir College student, it’s about to get a lot harder to grab a quick bite on campus.
Housing, Dining and Hospitality Associate Director Steve Casad has promised the upcoming closures of Sierra Summit and El Mercado won’t make for overcrowded dining halls around campus next year. But simple arithmetic would suggest otherwise: By all predictions, roughly the same number of dorm-dwellers divided by fewer dining halls with the same number of employees equals a much longer wait for your garden burger. It’s already common to wait upward of 30 minutes at Summit’s wok station; and come next fall, students shouldn’t be shocked to find themselves in a never-ending line for a partially-grilled cheese sandwich.
Granted, the closing of Muir’s cafeterias doesn’t quite signify the end of civilization as we know it. Mercado serves only 100 to 150 students per meal period (breakfast, lunch and dinner) ‘mdash; but Summit serves 500 to 600, all of whom will soon have to dine elsewhere. With so many diners displaced, it’s not hard to imagine a kind of pandemonium at OceanView Terrace that could turn a breakfast burrito craving into an hour-long mosh-pit experience.
In a perfect world, Housing, Dining and Hospitality might have chosen to complete the dining-hall renovations in phases, perhaps leaving Mercado open while Summit gets a hot new makeover so that students have at least one option in Muir, unhealthy though it may be ‘mdash; but Casad said that option was never feasible, as the two eateries are in fact part of the same building, presenting technical difficulties with electricity and water supply. He also said the renovations are far too comprehensive to possibly be completed in a single summer (perhaps he hasn’t witnessed Ty Pennington and company work their magic on ABC’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,’ or didn’t think the network would be too gung-ho about an ‘Extreme Makeover: College Cafeteria Edition’ special). While Fall Quarter will indeed see the opening of two new dining facilities that’ll stay open until midnight ‘mdash; the Village (think Earl’s Place, but in Eleanor Roosevelt College) and Goody’s in Thurgood Marshall College (think Foodworx, but accessible). Casad said the two eateries will serve mainly grab-and-go items like sandwiches and wraps, with Goody’s also equipped with the kind of prepared-foods section you’d find at Whole Foods. In actuality the pair will be procrastination stops to pick up a late-night cup of coffee before cranking out a 10-pager. Or a premade salad.
There’s something to be said for the fact that at UCSD, we’re pretty spoiled as far as cafeteria variety goes ‘mdash; six colleges’ worth of options has bred a sense of entitlement. But our large supply of cafeterias is met with 7,000 rumbling stomachs seven times a day.
Casad said that in addition to the closure of Summit and Mercado, the closing hours for OVT will be moved back from 1 a.m. to 9 p.m, reducing the service h
ours of one of the most frequented eateries on campus while two others have been shut down entirely.
Nevermind the fact that Muir students (not to mention those Revelle College residents not daring enough to eat at less-than-gourmet Plaza Cafe) will have to set aside a solid chunk of time account for the walk to quell their stomachs’ grumblings. Housing, Dining and Hospitality ought to reconsider reducing OVT’s hours in light of the fact that, being the next-closest dining facility to Muir, it’s going to see a giant surge of business next year. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to extend the hours of Plaza Cafe well beyond its current 8 p.m. closing either; yet even if Plaza were to stay open later, it wouldn’t change the fact that Muir residents will be paying the same costs as their peers, but without the standard benefit of in-college dining.
While we’ll still be able to swipe our IDs for Pop-Tarts and other non-necessities at 11 p.m., the university has a basic obligation to provide each of its colleges with lunch- and dinner-hour meals in a timely manner. We’ve got classes to go to, problem sets to labor over, papers to write ‘mdash; and a tendency to eat unhealthily already. Limiting students’ healthy dining-hall options will only’ encourage greater potato-chip consumption.
If there’s one thing that’s evident at 11:30 p.m. on any weeknight at UCSD, it’s that students will wait valiantly in line for their beloved breakfast burrito ‘mdash; but when those lines are actually affecting our daytime ability to eat, the university is not fulfilling its basic responsibilities.
Readers can contact Trevor Cox at [email protected].