Author:
I am very dissatisfied with the food dispensing systems that are established on this campus. I offer a short anecdote: One Saturday evening, upon remembering that the marketplace is closed at that time, something I forget every week until this time Saturday evening, I joined several friends for the Rangeview Dinner option. It was “barbeque.” The food itself was not bad, and I was impressed with the relative quality of the condiments for my burger (and the fact that they had bacon on their buffet style condiment bar). The food was not the problem this time. We waited for forty minutes in line, which were spent constantly reassessing our options and ultimately re-deciding to stay in line. We were by no means the last in line, and I am sure it could have been worse. Once we got to the front, it was announced that the servers had run out of food and we could now only take either one burger or one hot dog. I was very hungry.
Now you may say I am impatient and ungrateful. There are families in Africa starving and orphans in Haiti waiting hours for food aid rations. But, if you told me that the main objective in Occidental College’s dining policy is to facilitate worldly perspective and a sense of responsibility, I would be very confused.
I spend as much time waiting in line at the Cooler as I do throwing away pointless amounts of paper trash that I am mandated to collect with my food. A recent issue of The Weekly featured a letter to the editor very excellently criticizing the false green premises of the Green Bean Coffee Lounge. I commend the writer of that letter.
Similarly, at The Cooler, are we learning, through dialogue with trash, to come to terms with blatant top-down lethargy? In the Grean Bean, are we supposed to develop our liberal arts intellects by mastering the intriguing ambiguous territory inherent in the contradictions of the “compostable landfill” or the useless and actively degrading paper hot coffee cups? Or should I stop complaining now because, finally, the plastic caps to hot drinks are now colored a pleasing neon green, visible for miles even through LA smog, which tops off the school’s sustainable efforts?
As to the food: are we practicing solidarity with those who, if not suffering famine in Africa, have to deal with disproportionately large potato buns that no one has time or grill-space to toast? Or is this an opportunity to take charge of social justice movements against discriminatory policies where breadstuffs receive little attention while steaks, fawned over, are burnt to a crisp?
In paying excessive amounts for little to no “housing” and amazingly overpriced meal plans, are we emulating the hyperinflation experienced by the Zimbabwean? Being forced to live on campus for three years certainly has nothing to do with money for the school but is a further act of empathy, this time for Jews forced to live in Venetian ghettos, or Hmong repatriated to Laos against their will.
If the answer is “Yes, Jeremy,” then I guess I cannot complain. Otherwise, I think you, the college, whom- or whatever that entity is, should be slightly more reflective about your policies, incentives, and goals, and then give the students an honest and public explanation for all of your shortcomings that we might point out.
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