Some Students Content With New Dining Hall Experience

Author: [no author name found]

There was a minor banquet awaiting students in the Ross Dining Hall on Monday at lunchtime: shrimp and satan stir-fries were simmering in one corner, while elsewhere students could choose between two kinds of wrap sandwiches, two kinds of pizza, black bean chili or chili con carne, grilled chicken and more.
For that performance, and for the friendly service that accompanied it, the staff of Dining Services deserves warm thanks. However, the variety available on this Monday afternoon helped to remind me and my dining companions of the weekend that preceded it, during which the options seem more like that of a fast-food chain. That is, home fries omelets derived from processed egg-product, and juices from concentrate for breakfast and, for the evening meal, a choice between pizza, hamburgers, the ubiquitous bagel with cream cheese, cheese-stuffed pasta or more pizza. This is not always the case — oftentimes the selections resemble the variety outlined in the first paragraph — though it is certainly not a rare occurrence.
While one is put forever in awe of the extraordinary effort that is made in dining halls, and of what is normally a great array of flavors, designed to satisfy almost any palette, all to often, choices seem to consider the needs of only the most indiscriminate of eaters.
It must be noted that the vast majority of Middlebury students are forced to eat on — not to mention, pay for — the meal plan. And while it is perhaps inevitable that students will find fault with almost anything put in front of them, it seems to me that the annoyance that many students are voicing these days as they make their way through huge lines and, all too often, choices which lack nutritional goodness and flavor, is in this case justified.
A year ago (before I left to complete a year abroad), the situation was decidedly better; I think that the transformation of Proctor has a lot to do with that. Why is it that Proctor, the largest and arguably the most centralized dining hall on campus, carries the fast-food menu that was once owned by Hamlin, the smallest dining facility on campus? The other night, having been turned off by the long lines to enter Ross, I had a dinner at Proctor. The options? Sweet and sour chicken fingers, pizza, deep-fried egg rolls and, for reasons I can't account for, a particularly tasteless salad bar.
Just before school got underway this year, I visited a friend at Columbia University in New York City. At Columbia, thanks to the huge array of dining options available in Manhattan, students are forced to eat on the meal plan only during their freshman year. In order to attract upperclassmen, Columbia's dining services goes to great lengths to increase the convenience of their facilities, and the appeal of their offerings. For example, students can choose fresh sushi at these dining halls.
Let me be clear, I neither expect nor desire that Middining begins hauling fish and seaweed into Vermont. Rather, I use the Columbia example to illustrate the extent to which that university seeks to satisfy its student population with healthy, tasty selections. Just because the town of Middlebury is not New York City, and because Middlebury students, in most cases, have no choice in being on the meal plan, should not mean that Middlebury students should be given the slim choice that we often are provided with.
In closing, I decided to write this article because I have heard myself complaining, and I have heard so many students complaining, about the choices offered in Middlebury dining halls. I don't seek to downplay the tremendous effort that is made on the part of Middining to convenience students, and to make us feel at home here. And yet, must it be the case that, more often than not, we eat like kids out on the town— when processed, fatty, unhealthy food makes up so much of our diets.

Edith Honan is a senior from Connecticut.

Well, the first-years are here: The Class of 2006. An entire new slew of kids to get to know, date, harass or if you dare, welcome into the community. You know them as the sea of giggling heads and bashful eyes that parade campus.
You can point them in the direction of Proctor, or The Grille. But it will do no good. They're hopeless. I know, because I'm one of them.
And we are hopeless … all of us. We don't even understand what J-term is. Or why our school's song reminds us of a bad Enimem rap. (It's a tap tap tap and it's a rap rap rap. If you go to Amherst, I'll bust a cap cap cap.)
But I'm not here to complain: I'm here to entertain (see, that rhymes). Yep, the Class of 2006 is here. Now you're stuck with us.
A major point of confusion is the controversy surrounding the dining system. People have been complaining about the opening of Ross, and how the food is not living up to expectations.
OK, I admit, the Maine lobster wasn't fresh, and that caviar was definitely too tart. But the chicken pizza is to die for! And Proctor, the Zaggat surveyed five star diner that it is, is only open on weekdays. Due to this turn of events, surely, the student population will starve. Mass chaos will reign.
There have already been reports of cannibalism, and I don't know how long we can hold out. Mr. President, when you read this, send help. Our time is short.
Aside from the near apocalypse that occurs on weekends, I feel the food is pretty good. I really was expecting the worst. I was expecting sloppy gruel and rice that reminded you of gravel.
I imagined the dining hall being located on the edge of campus most known for gang violence and animal mauling. I cringed at the thought of having to pick out the bones in the macaroni. I was expecting the house of horrors of cafeterias, if you will. I expected Wesleyan dining.
But to my joy, I was completely blown away by the cafeterias here. They have strange and exotic dishes: "crispy cubes," "eggplant pizza" and "vegan soufflé," to name a few. At first, I thought vegan was a native Vermont animal. In Jersey, we don't have "vegans". We have the parkway.
I never encountered a vegan in the wild during the MOO trip though. OK, that's a lie. I never went on MOO. I did This Is Vermont. Actually, not really. I kinda got lost in the woods around Bread Loaf and wandered for a few days. But I really bonded with my class!
Anyhoo, back to the elusive vegan animal. I didn't find it in the woods, nor in any of my old Ranger Rick magazines. Finally, I asked a friendly JC. Apparently, vegan means people who don't eat meat or anything coming from an animal. I was way off!
What irony, I thought to myself. And I thought they were ingredients in tonight's dinner! I laughed at the thought. But I was disappointed too. I bet vegan people taste real good. (Ben & Jerry, if you're reading this, do I have a new flavor for you…)
Thanks to Ross, I finally get to eat donuts, then pizza, then pizza again. And Septemberfest rocked! I beat five seven-year-olds in the donut eating competition.
I took 20 bucks off of them and made this one kid roll down the hill till he got sick. Wow, I never knew college could be so much fun. I got to pet pumpkins, and cows, and that night I got drunk and met cute first-years in Batell South.
To conclude, Middlebury "overcooked lobster and tart caviar" dining: good. Wesleyan "pick the bones out of the macaroni" dining: bad.
Oh, and we get Ben & Jerry's every so often too. Life is tough.

Christian Holt is a first-year from New Jersey.