Famous Last Words: Making life easier in Lowe Dining Hall

As the typically poor college student, I’ve held a various number of odd jobs and worked in a number of places. I’ve worked in the Lowe Dining Hall for almost a year now – before the minimum wage went up, it was the school’s best paying job, other than the bookstore, and good luck getting a job there, it seems.

I’ve discovered something incredible about the dining hall – about the whole air of the place. It is quite possibly the campus’ greatest social experiment.

By Andrea Perkins

Senior Staff Writer

As the typically poor college student, I’ve held a various number of odd jobs and worked in a number of places. I’ve worked in the Lowe Dining Hall for almost a year now – before the minimum wage went up, it was the school’s best paying job, other than the bookstore, and good luck getting a job there, it seems.

I’ve discovered something incredible about the dining hall – about the whole air of the place. It is quite possibly the campus’ greatest social experiment.

Colleges in general must be seen this way to some sociologists – thousands of teenagers and young adults living together in one space.

But that social experiment can get messy – literally. In the dining hall, when someone sits on the register, the job consists of sitting down and pushing two buttons, then when everyone leaves, cleaning up afterward-that means pushing chairs in and wiping off tables.

The noise – is okay. It’s a cafeteria. It’s where students unwind and have a good time. If there wasn’t noise in the cafeteria – and if there weren’t those “Chatty Cathies,” I would think something was seriously wrong. I would also think that the student population had gone utterly humorless. This writer’s opinion is that most of the loud banter is hilarious, and when times get stressful, needed. The crowdedness – is also fine.

Seton Hill University (SHU) is expanding. Rumors of another dining hall have been floating around. Students understand this and cope – they don’t eat during peak dining hall hours. The behavior and cleanliness leaves something to be desperately desired.

The general rule of thumb is to take your own tray up to the dish-room and clean up your own mess, because obviously your mother does not live here. When that poor soul sitting at the front of the cafeteria who scanned you in (or didn’t, because you forgot your card, AGAIN) has to clean up your napkins, the salt spread across the tables (perhaps in an attempt to salt another’s Mountain Dew before they get back from the dessert table?) the cups plunged in monkey dishes full of ketchup, and bits of lettuce and food smeared all over the tables, one has to wonder: where am I eating, a dining hall, or the tiger pit at the zoo?

That one person sitting at the register has exactly one hour to count the money, wipe the tables, push in the chairs and refill the napkins for the next day. Making their job harder by not doing the things you should be doing already is completely unnecessary. And really – is it so hard to push in your chair and pick up a napkin?

Students normally don’t have any idea how many times the person at the register has to say, “You forgot your card? Can someone flex you in?” a day. I hate having to turn down people, since I know what it’s like to not eat a meal because you don’t have your card or you’re not financially cleared. But after you hear it from the same people all the time, it begins to get frustrating.

I’m not sure why so many students don’t seem to carry their student ID on them. Residence Life puts so much weight on keeping your keys with you, I would think that carrying your ID with you would be just as important, if not more. Why would you want to sneak into the cafeteria if you had a meal plan? It would be more beneficial to the student if you actually used all your meals.

I don’t know how many students realize that the school takes your meals if you don’t use them…and you don’t get those meals back. It is to your benefit to bring your student ID with you and use your meal-I would rather spend it on ice cream or a sandwich at the Griffin’s Cove rather than have the school take it and spend it on…who knows?

Finally, students need to realize one more thing. By 7 p.m., most of the cafeteria staff have had a long, hot day in the kitchen. And at seven, their day is not over – they must stay until 8 p.m. to clean up. They are all great people, but it really is not fair to them if they have to stay because students didn’t realize the dining hall closes at 7 p.m. That fact is posted outside the dining hall. Even if you’re a freshman, if you don’t know the dining hall closes by seven by now, something is terribly wrong.

At seven, the cooks have cleaned up, all they need to do is pull the food from the serving line, throw what has been eaten away and put the untouched food in the fridge.

Most of the time, the people cleaning up don’t mind if students stay and chat in the kitchen, but it makes no sense to sneak in after seven because the food is put away at that point and the register is turned off.

You don’t even get to use your meal plan, so that is wasted as well. At seven, if you see the doors closed, you’re better off turning around and going to the Cove.

Most students are decent about all this -they bring their card, they put their trays away, don’t leave heinous messes and they get in the dining hall before seven.

But, there are the few that leave their trash lying around, forget their cards and bang on the door to get in after hours that make working in the dining hall just that little bit harder. The solution is a no-brainer – if students do their part for the community, the problem is already on the way to being fixed.