[2008] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] [UA-SCATR] New Card initiative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M Kelch)
Fri Jul 7 08:38:30 2006
Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 08:38:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Steven M Kelch <kelch@mit.edu>
To: Cathy Zhang <zhangc@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <44AE21A9.8000705@mit.edu>
Cc: mit-talk@mit.edu, grace <gkenney@mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
To add a little to what Jenn said:
The "no take-out" rule was put into place by the housemaster, and not by
campus dining. I believe that they have started putting takeout trays back
in, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.
skelch
On Fri, 7 Jul 2006, Cathy Zhang wrote:
> Could someone explain what happened at McCormick, about these "take-out
> options" that were eliminated, etc? I'm in Simmons, so I've heard about
> dining hall issues, but I've never heard about people not being allowed to
> eat anywhere other than the dining hall...??
>
> -Cathy
>
> Jessica H Lowell wrote:
>> 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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>>> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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