Just walking down Broadway alone will prove the well-known fact that New York has the best and most diverse selection of food. From $2.00 falafels downtown to the extensive selection of sushi dives surrounding Morningside Heights, the options are endless—that is, unless you’re a Barnard student living in the Quad. Then the city is no longer your oyster, food-wise. Instead, a mandatory meal plan seems to draw you to either John Jay or Hewitt on Friday nights. Everybody gets through the monotony of the first–year meal plan somehow: some find a way to sustain themselves for two full semesters with exclusively sugary cereals and milk, others with daily salads covered in generic dressing. But come sophomore year, the freedom to choose suddenly returns, and the completely superfluous unlimited meal plan is just a memory of that first year—once again, unless you are living in Barnard’s Quad.
To backtrack a bit, since the disappearance of the diminutive McIntosh building from the Barnard skyline, upperclassman living in the Quad have had an obligatory unlimited meal plan forced upon them. And though there are pros to having a meal plan, the Barnard mandate really is unreasonable—it takes away the freedom to choose where and what to eat as well as the extra money in your parents’ pockets and students’ time as they wait in lines during the noon rush.
If you find yourself eating from a gray (or red and blue, depending on your restrictions) Hewitt tray on a Saturday, then chances are you’re really not taking advantage of all that the city has to offer—and based on the amount of people in the cafeteria on a Saturday, a tremendous number of students are missing out. The meal plan makes eating too convenient, and students hardly venture out to explore gastronomic delights that are just a subway ride away.
Plus, there is a forgotten satisfaction in making dinner for oneself, while the freedom to create a menu that fits one’s individual appetite is indispensable. Allowing students to cook for themselves is also the easiest way for dining services to satisfy all of the students with various dietary restrictions. Students may feel obliged to utilize their dining hall access, but may be limited by a paltry selection. “Vegetarians definitely don’t get their money’s worth because the vegetarian options are so scanty. They rarely offer vegetarian entrees besides the salad bar, and even then there is very little protein in them. As much as I spend on one meal, I could spend in one day,” said Lauren Thompson, BC ’10, a current Quad resident.
In addition, the dining halls are a bit pricey for what they offer. If you have never glanced at the bill, among minor fees like $300 for fall orientation—yes, you did pay to be oriented by NSOP leaders—the meal plan is a larger inconvenience. For two semesters, Barnard charges $4,570 for the required unlimited meal plan and $4,820 for a kosher plan. Unless you’re a varsity athlete, I doubt you are eating nearly $5,000 worth of food in eight months. Especially during the current economic crisis, the money paid to Barnard for dining hall access for the academic year could be better spent on less costly meals more suitably rationed for students—a $5.70 wrap instead of $15 to eat as many microwaved, hardboiled eggs as possible, for example.
Also, the dining hall schedule is not suited for all students. Some cannot spare the time for the usual half-hour wait for something from the grill or a slice of pizza, and wind up at Pinnacle or the Milano Market anyway. Even though Hewitt has expanded its hours, lunch and dinner still are hectic experiences and some students are not at liberty to wait for a sandwich that could be made much faster at a local deli.
The aforementioned points manage to deter students from choosing Hewitt during the housing lottery rush. Unfortunately, the only other option for a single dorm-style living is Elliot Hall, a residence on Claremont notorious for its rooms that resemble closets more so than bedrooms. Surprisingly, Elliot Hall was actually fully occupied before Hewitt during the sign up for housing last spring. Even the rooms with windows that open onto a brick wall were taken. While Columbia allows its students more options like Shapiro and Furnald, with the same style of housing, Barnard only has one other option for those who opt not to live in a suite.
Living in the Quad as an upperclassman is almost like reliving the parts of freshman year that were best left as memories; stealing trays to go sledding down Low and writing in sharpie the words, “tray cool,” on a blue John Jay tray are freshman year antics that most students do not aspire to do again. I propose that Barnard give Quad residents more options, ranging from alternative meal plans to the unlimited. Though it is obvious that Barnard Dining Services has made improvements in the dining hall and responds to requests, the current required meal plan for Quad residents is excessive and unreasonable.