John Jay take-out option: freedom or hindrance?

There has been—or rather, I suspect there will be—a lot of talk about John Jay, now that more on-campus dining locations are going to become “all-you-can-eat.”  But as the Columbia community considers how students may or may not consume food in the dining halls, I find myself thinking of what we are able to take out of them. Looking back to on my earliest days at Columbia, I remember the first time I went into John Jay Dining Hall. The first thing that caught my eye was the takeout option. During my previous visits to other colleges I didn’t really find this option. I thought it was a great idea to have this choice for those days when you need to use your time wisely.  What I didn’t expect was for this option to be so restrictive. Why make something that is supposed to benefit students so limiting? And if there are such stringent restrictions, the rules should at least be posted somewhere so that students can be aware of the disadvantages of takeout. This takeout option stopped being so convenient recently, three semesters and a couple of dining hall incidents after my first impression. For my convenience, I put my cereal in the cup as opposed to in the container. After all, I don’t want to use a meal just for cereal and milk. As I was departing from John Jay, one of the employees asked me not to do this again. I was told that only liquids can go in the cup. Yes, putting only liquids in the cup might be the obvious thing to do, but I try to be efficient and use my container space cleverly. Infuriated, I went back to my dorm and searched for the rules about the takeout option on the Dining Services website. Not surprisingly, I found nothing about this matter. The only rule available on the website is that “Food cannot be taken from John Jay Dining Room, except in take-away containers.” Why, then, did this lady ask me not to put cereal in my cup again? Where did she get these rules from? Furthermore, the employees restrict how much fruit you may take as well as the amount of food you may put inside the container. If the container does not close completely, I have observed the staff asking students to make sure it can close the next time. The containers which John Jay provides offer limited space and some foods, even taken in moderate amounts, might not fit adequately. Therefore, if you want to have a good, balanced meal from John Jay, if there is such thing, you might just need to sit down and bring your books to the dining hall. According to the only rule available, you need to make sure that everything is inside the container, and if that means putting that greasy slice of pizza on top of the fresh fruits, so be it. While I was placing some old and brown-looking salad in my container, I observed a student who only had two slices of wheat bread in his tray taking two apples and an orange. This student was told that he is only allowed to take two pieces of fruit and that he needed to put one back. To me, it seems only fair that students get their money’s worth. For the most part, I don’t find anything appetizing when I go to the dining hall and I end up eating fruit because it looks much fresher than anything in the salad bar. It is only fair that, with the options we have at the dining hall, we can choose how many pieces of fruit we want to eat. Instead of giving students this option, the same pieces of fruit sit out the next day even though they have lost their freshness. If more places become “all-you-can-eat,” they, like John Jay, should actually enable students on the meal plan to eat all they can, regardless of whether or not they’re staying in or taking out.  However, if John Jay Dining Hall managers—or, come next fall, the staff at Ferris Booth or anywhere else—want to be restrictive with the takeout option, I think it is necessary for them to make the rules known to the students and to the employees. I spent a year taking out cereal in my cup, and it was never a problem until now. Honestly, I still put cereal in my cup, and milk, too, since I only obey rules that are officially implemented. I will continue getting my money’s worth until the day that these rules become official. I believe that the problem is that the managers are not communicating with the employees, and as a result some employees are implementing rules that are not carried out by others. Thus, whenever anyone at John Jay Dining Hall asks you not to put your cereal in the cup, ask him to show you where you can find these rules.  Or maybe just point to the liquid dairy and say that you’re milking your meal plan.   The author is a Columbia College sophomore.