[2003] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] [UA-SCATR] New Card initiative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Fri Jul 7 03:46:11 2006
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:45:48 -0400
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@mit.edu>
To: Jeff Roberts <thejoker@alum.mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <b82503c90607061428j497005e4kd8907316e3889549@mail.gmail.com>
Cc: mit-talk@mit.edu, grace <gkenney@mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
I don't think many people are opposed to dining halls themselves on
principle. The problem is that, for both financial feasibility reasons
and social
engineering reasons, dining halls are made mandatory. Of course, this is
something for incoming freshmen to consider when they're choosing a dorm, but
there are still concerns, and problems. Jeff, you lived in the dorms before
Freshmen on Campus; the problem of FSILG frosh forced to choose between losing
money on their forced meal plan or losing valuable bonding time with their
house didn't exist then to nearly the extent it does now. Whenever someone
comments on "dining halls", they're also commenting on the typical
implications
of dining halls on the MIT campus.
From what I've heard about the situation in McCormick, from McCormick
residents
and others, Grace's comments about it are pretty on target. I bet that even
those who originally supported the dining hall there didn't forsee that in the
future take-out options would be eliminated to force people to eat on site.
- Jessie
Quoting Jeff Roberts <thejoker@alum.mit.edu>:
> On 7/3/06, grace <gkenney@mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> finally, the reinstitution of dining halls is recent, and it's been more
>> or less a top-down thing [witness attempts in mccormick to _force_
>> students to eat there.] in general, they haven't been an expression of
>> dorm culture - in places where dining is part of the culture, it's
>> generally the result of halls and suites having their own kitchens. the
>> imposition of a dining hall [along with a mandatory mealplan for the dorm
>> to ensure that it's actually used] is often a way to limit, rather than
>> increase student dining choices.
>
> I've enjoyed reading this discussion and was going to stay out of it
> but this comment sort-of struck a nerve. I'd argue that residential
> dining halls do contribute to culture in a comparable way to
> hall/suite cooking; I lived in a dorm with an active dining hall and
> it was an important part of my social experience and a major part of
> life of the dorm. Maybe most of the people on mit-talk have a
> different experience with dining -- after all, only 3 (now 4 I guess)
> of the 11 dorms have dining halls -- but I hope you recognize that
> different dining experiences can contribute to different types of
> culture in different ways, and they aren't necessarily better or
> worse.
>
> I'd guess that a lot of alums and students feel the same way I do, but
> you're more likely to hear from those who feel that dining halls are
> bad (i.e. people who just don't like the food, or the atmosphere, or
> whatever else about it) or the system is unfair (i.e. FSILGs and
> people who pay the dining hall fee but don't use the dining hall that
> much).
>
> Having heard the same arguments over and over again, I've come to
> think that the persistent problem plaguing campus dining is that when
> it comes to food, everyone has different preferences and no one system
> is going to satisfy everyone, and yet if it doesn't satisfy everyone,
> people will complain. People like to cook meals or buy them prepared,
> eat alone or in groups, sit down and have a meal or grab something on
> their way to lab. That's not even getting into actual food
> preferences. Just about every dining facility I've ever seen on any
> campus has been panned for having terrible food, and yet there are
> always some people who will eat there all the time. People are
> probably more selective when it comes to food than almost anything
> else. Unlike restaurants, that can cater to different tastes, campus
> dining tends to aim towards the lowest common demonimator. As a
> result, hardly anyone is bound to praise it, while those who aren't
> satisfied will be compelled to complain. You could always try to make
> it better by providing more options, but the more you do that the more
> you have to pay, and where does the money come from? (answer: usually
> it comes out of students' pockets, one way or another, until someone
> comes up with a better option ...)
>
> I doubt any of this was helpful but maybe it provided some food for
> thought. Ha! Get it? Ughh.
>
> Jeff (who realizes that I need a "non pretentious" filter more than
> anyone ...)
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