The purpose of an all-you-can-eat dining hall is so that students can go there with their friends when they have time to relax, socialize and enjoy their meal. Recently, members of the Campus Times decided to go to Danforth Dining Hall to take advantage of this very feature. We wanted to be able to sit together and have a meal.
The events that transpired at our CT dinner date disappointed us for many reasons. We quickly discovered that all of us couldn’t sit together since the round tables allow no more than seven people to sit at a table with their trays.
Because Danforth encourages a community environment, large groups of friends, SA organizations and sports teams to come eat there when they have time on their hands. But since the tables are not large enough and pulling two of them together does not work because they are round ? groups larger than seven cannot possibly sit together.
Another disappointing factor about Danforth is the incredibly high price. Ten dollars is unreasonable for anyone on a declining balance.
First of all, it is unfair that one block, valued at $6, can be used at Danforth, while the declining is $10. Students using declining would obviously find it too expensive to eat at Danforth regularly because they would run out of money. Since upperclassmen usually use a declining balance, this becomes another reason for them not to eat at Danforth and the results are obvious. Go on any weeknight and you’ll find Danforth less than a quarter full.
Having established that Danforth is only attractive for block users, consider that the primary users of block are freshmen. This does not make any sense, because Danforth is the furthest dining hall from the freshman quad.
The solution to these problems is to eliminate the block plan altogether and move to declining across the board. If the administration is worried about freshmen spending too much money, it can place limits on the amount of declining that can be spent per week for freshmen.
Danforth itself also needs to be changed to better accommodate to students. Bring the long tables back so that there is a mix of round and long tables, allowing groups of different sizes to eat at Danforth. Furthermore, the cost of Danforth needs to be reasonable, perhaps $8 ? or somewhere between the $6 block value and $10 declining value.
These changes would make dining at Danforth a more enjoyable experience.
