n In Jason Gutlaizer’s letter in the March 3 issue (“RA upset with dining rules,” pg. 7), he discussed being upset with dining hall rules. Those rules are in place for a reason. Let’s suppose for a minute that a student removes a sandwich from the dining hall, and it happens to have mayo on it. And then, when the student gets back to his or her room, he or she forgets to put it in the fridge right away. Later, the student remembers, and then, takes the sandwich to his or her student teaching job for lunch. That night, after lunch, the student becomes ill and decides that it is the dining hall’s fault that the sandwich was bad. Would the student decide to sue? This is called liability. Yes, the rule is there to protect the dining hall staff’s rear ends, but it isn’t from their stupidity that it protects them. This might be one of the possible health issues that Mr. Gutlaizer wonders about.
As for the allegation that campus dining wastes so much food, this is just not true. Several student employees of campus dining are taking steps to try to get leftover food donated to shelters. But besides that, Dining Services does take steps to try to avoid wasting food. After all, it wouldn’t be very good business to let half the product go to waste, now would it? As a student manager at the George Sherman Union, I can attest to the fact that we do not throw everything away. Yes, some things have to be thrown out because they have a shelf-life of one day, or just happen to outlive their shelf-lives, but we do take inventory of our stock. We do figure out what sells and we do estimate how much of the product we will need so that we avoid the unnecessary waste.
Mr. Gutlaizer, I have a solution for your lunch dilemma: Save your $5 that you would have to spend to buy lunch whenever you student teach. Go to the Shaw’s Market around the corner when they are having a sale and buy yourself a loaf of bread, a jar of jam and a jar of peanut butter. If you student teach three days a week, this should last you at least two weeks, and altogether cost you maybe $7. I’m sure that if you picked up the free newspapers on campus every Sunday, you’d even be able to clip a few coupons.
I would just like to express my shock that a resident assistant would encourage students to break the rules. As an RA, Mr. Gutlaizer, you should be aware of the “Unlimited” dining plan that students can pay for if they want to eat whatever and whenever. Otherwise, it is stealing. You set a bad example for other students by encouraging them to take whatever they want from the dining halls. It’s no different from walking out of the Union Court with a D’Angelo’s sandwich stuffed inside your jacket.
Christine Rigo
CAS ’04
Student Manager, GSU
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