It's 9 p.m. and I've just returned from watching movies for Film Studies. I'm hungry, and there's nowhere to go but home. I suppose I could venture into town again, but how many times a week can I waste money in Hanover restaurants when my Declining Balance Account is going almost untouched?
Yes, it's summer time and Dartmouth Dining Services, as we are all aware by now, has changed the hours of all the dining halls to save them money. And it's leaving us hungry. It is impossible to get a meal after 8 p.m. just about anywhere on campus.
As the hours of daylight and outside activities grow longer, we are forced to cut them short in order to feed ourselves in the crowded din of Food Court before it closes its doors.
DDS must consider cost efficiency when planning scheduling for the various dining halls. That is obvious. It does not seem to make sense, however, to raise prices and meal plan costs ($30 for this term) and then severely limit the times when students' DBA can be spent. These measures of profit skimming seem almost extortive in nature, money for nothing.
Students are beating the path almost nightly into Hanover to catch a meal once they miss Food Court's closing hours. Other students accustomed to the healthy dinner choices offered by the Collis Cafe and Home Plate are being driven to frustration trying to maintain the same type of diet with the dining options now available.
With many people living off campus this term, it would seem that cooking is a wonderful alternative, but cooking -- like eating out -- costs money. We have already paid for our various dining plans -- more than we have had to in the past. And now, due to the ill-advised scheduling of DDS, we are paying even more for food we won't eat.
I suggest that anyone who hasn't become a Green Card member do so now. At least then you do not have to know what it is costing you to eat until the end of the month.
