Jason Gutlaizer wrote a letter (“RA upset with dining hall rules,” pg. 7, March 3) complaining about not being able to take food out of the dining hall. Mr. Gutlaizer, you said, “At least it will be eaten instead of being thrown away. We paid for our meal plan, so why can’t we take our food out of the dining hall?”
Part of the answer might be that the dining hall doesn’t throw away all the food at the end of every day. And the meal plan you bought isn’t all you can eat forever, wherever. You can’t empty the cereal bins into your bag, you can’t fill a Tupperware with pasta and you can’t kidnap the people who make the burritos, even if they’re really good. Or you could do those things, but you’d be stealing. (And kidnapping, in the last case.)
Upset that the Rhetty-to-Go isn’t available when you need it in the morning? Maybe think about talking to someone about getting it the night before. The dining hall staff might be amenable to being reasoned with, as long as you didn’t just steal from them. The sandwich you made went to waste because you got caught. Try ordering a pizza and telling the delivery guy he might as well leave it because you don’t have any money to pay for it, but it will just go to waste now.
Sadly, businesses have to pay for things, too. Mr. Gutlaizer, I think the most sensible thing you said was in your concluding paragraph when you say, “Maybe I’m too young to understand.”
Michael Kaplan GRS ’05