Campus dining’s big missed steak

By SADIE ROBERTS

The University of Mary Washington is one of the best schools and communities someone could be a part of, in my opinion, and I believe the majority of my classmates would agree. Our school has a great campus, a caring staff, administrators, faculty and countless opportunities for students.

However, I think there is always room for improvement. My biggest issue concerns the dining options at UMW.

There are many options around campus of where to eat, but only if you go at certain times during the day. Humans are naturally habitual creatures, meaning most students will go to breakfast, lunch and dinner at around the same time. What about the smaller, but not irrelevant, percentage of students that cannot be at the dining hall or The Underground at those times? Maybe they have a class, a club meeting or practice. Whatever the reason may be, they should be able to eat.

Being a sophomore, I noticed last year that if you did not show up during specific dining times, there would be very few options for food. The UC says they are open until 8 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, however, what they fail to mention is that most of the stations start closing down at around 7 p.m. Therefore leaving most students with only one option: the salad bar.

Another change in the UC that I definitely do not favor is the new hours for brunch. Last year, brunch was only served on Saturday and Sunday, making it something that I always looked forward to. This year, they have expanded it to Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. This seems like a very excessive time for breakfast to be served. The new breakfast time also cuts into students’ normal lunch schedule, as I mentioned before.

As sophomore Alexandria Riker puts it, “While everyone is piling in at 11 a.m. for lunch, there is only one lunch line open and I cannot get a burger and fries until 11:30.”

In addition, I cannot wrap my mind around why The Underground is not open for lunch. For those of us who were here last year, we know that The Underground was only open for lunch.

When I got the email saying that it would be open for dinner, I was ecstatic, until of course, I read a little further and was informed that they would be eliminating the lunch hours.

“I don’t understand why I can’t get a Festival for lunch and dinner at The Underground,” said sophomore Shelby Miller.

Similarly, sophomore Shyan Murphy suggested that Vocelli’s should expand their delivery menu. If she wants to enjoy the buffalo chicken sub she has to pick it up from the store instead of it being delivered.

UMW’s 2015-2016 budget plan contains $9,883,000 and there have been major cuts in operation costs for each dining option on campus. Considering the amount of the budget and the amount of new students each year I hope UMW takes student comments into consideration.