I recently made a rare trip down the hill to Belvin, and was met with shock and dismay, rather then delicious food.
I arrived at the dining facility at approximately 10:03 a.m., planning to use my meal plan to make myself a waffle. After waiting a minute or two to have my card swiped, one of Belvin’s employees came up to the counter and informed me that they were closed.
“Closed?” I asked, in disbelief.
I was told that they were closed from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. every day. I don’t know if I’m on some sort of weird dining schedule, but it seems to me that those happen to be prime dining hours.
It’s impossible that I am the only person that has run into this problem. There must be others out there who have walked through those doors in hopes of making themselves a salad or serving themselves a slice of pizza.
I know that in the hour before 11 a.m. the staff has to prepare themselves for the onslaught of the lunch crowd. They were busy placing the lunch items in their places while I was there. During that time, I certainly don’t expect them to stand behind a counter and serve me pancakes and eggs, but I do want to have to ability to make myself a waffle.
There is one thing that we, as humans, all do, and that’s eat. With only two places on campus that accept our meal plan (not Bearkat bucks), and one of them serves only Mexican food, I would hope that at a time such as 10:03 a.m., I could have the ability to eat something other than a quesadilla.
It astounds me that a place that is meant to serve students would follow these hours.
The library, which half the students probably can’t even locate on a map, stays open until 1 a.m. on weeknights, and they don’t close for an hour in the middle of the day to re-shelve books. The HKC, which some students probably have never stepped foot in, stays open until midnight during the week and they don’t lock the doors for an hour so that they can wipe down the machines.
I will have graduated by the time that the new dining facility will be complete, but I can only hope that they will have it set up in a way that will allow students to eat when they get hungry in the middle of the day.
Until that time comes, I hope that Aramark and Belvin will take the students’ needs into consideration and keep an area open all day in which students can prepare food for themselves, without watching the clock, and without being denied their delectable syrup-pocketed breakfast treat.