Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Gotta Love that Cafeteria Food

Being efficient with your time is one of the most important things that college students can learn.  One part of the day where most people don’t waste any time is lunch.  From my observations in the Nagel dining hall I can conclude that everyone tries to maximize their productivity while eating.
Generally the Nagel dining hall is full of a bunch of students that are grabbing some food and doing some homework between classes.  Almost everyone in the dining hall is a student and most tables have at least one school related object along with the food that people are eating.  In addition to the books and notes, almost every table has at least one person one their laptop.  Some faculty or school employees stopped by and got something to eat, but none of them sat down and ate their meal in the dining hall.  This is probably because most of the faculty have their own offices where they can eat while getting work done.  This means that not only are the students trying to get work done while eating but almost everyone is.
Across the country dining halls are changing their methods to help students be efficient with their time.  They are doing this by increasing their hours of operation.  In Massachusetts at UMass-Lowell the dining halls, ”stay open later and longer, often from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., with continuous service between meals.”  This allows students to prioritize their work over meals because they know that at almost any time they are going to be able to get food.  Even if it is not during regular operating hours food is available. 
Most of the students that eat at Nagel are sophomores and some freshmen.  This is probably because Nagel is a sophomore dorm and it is located adjacent to Nelson which is another sophomore dorm.  This closest freshman dorm is J-Mac but the majority of freshmen live in Halls.  Halls has its own cafeteria so most freshmen choose to eat there.  As for the seniors and juniors, most of them don’t live on campus.  The majority of them have an apartment or house where they can cook their own meals.  This makes it so that they do no need to go to the cafeterias to get food.  Another reason they avoid the cafeterias is because most of them don’t have meal plans.  This presents them with a fork in the road where both paths require them to spend money to get food.  One path is buying cafeteria food and the other is restaurant quality food or groceries.  Most people that I know would choose the ladder of the two. 
Another reason that juniors and seniors would choose to avoid the cafeterias is that it is also a loss in efficiency of their time.  During lunch you can assume that they would head back to their apartments or houses so that they can drop off materials for past classes and grab whatever they need for later.  And to grab something to eat if there is enough time.  If they are done with classes then the best place for them to start doing work would be at home.  After all, there are a lot of distractions in the cafeterias that makes doing quality work difficult.  If I was in that position I would choose to head home and cook myself a good meal and eat that while doing work.   
There are three types of food offered at Nagel.  You can pick Mexican food, Barbecue, or pizza.  Most people choose to eat either the Mexican food or barbeque.  This is probably because all of the other cafeterias offer pizza and most people I have talked to are sick of pizza from eating so much of it.  The way that the food is served to people who get it to go plays into being efficient with time.  The portions fit perfectly into to-go boxes.  This allows anyone who is running late or is short on time to stop by, grab a meal to go, and eat it when more time is available. 
The quality and quantity versus cost of the food is very reasonable.  The food is arguably the best on campus and most people pay with a meal swipe.  The food that is offered is always the same but the chefs know how to cook what they make and it is always consistent.  Sometimes the food at other cafeterias tastes bland but at Nagel the food is consistently tasty.  Because the portions are enough to fill you up without overfilling you and you pay as much as any other cafeteria I argue that it is the best place to eat on campus. 
The décor of Nagel is a modern cafeteria.  There are a couple large booths and there are tables scattered in the rest of the open space.  Two TVs are located in the eating area to entertain the patrons of the cafeteria while they eat.  To get your food you go to the counter that offers what you want; barbeque, pizza, or Mexican.  Then the chef puts what you want on your plate and gives you your meal.  To pay for the meal it is as simple as walking to the register paying with whatever method works best for you. 



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