You might be hard-pressed to find someone who’ll admit to
absolutely loving the food in the dining halls, but nearly everyone
can agree it’s convenient. That is, until the dorms took on
an extra 1,345 students this year.
Now, students gripe about long waits as the Hill’s
“anchor” dining halls (Rieber, Covel, De Neve and
Hedrick) try to balance serving old and new residents without any
significant upgrades to capacity.
Housing officials say that, more or less, things on the Hill are
going smoothly. They say Rieber and Hedrick dining halls are under
capacity, and technically, the numbers bear them out. They also say
the opening of Bruin Cafe and the expected opening of Rendez-Vous,
a Crossroads-esque eatery, in winter or spring will help juggle the
demand for food.
But according to interviews and observations made by members of
this editorial board last week, the students on the Hill are
telling a somewhat different story:
“¢bull; Many said they had encountered problems while trying to
eat at Covel Commons or De Neve. Students said tables there are
scarce during peak hours. According to some students, it could take
anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to get in, get food, and find a
place to sit.
“¢bull; Students also experienced the most difficulties at De
Neve, which had the longest waits to get in and to find a table.
Lines usually formed to get in around noon and again around 6 or 7
p.m. Sometimes, lines almost stretched out of the building.
“¢bull; While first-year students seemed to accept the waits,
students with previous dining hall experience said this year is
noticeably different. One second-year at the back of the De Neve
line said while he could expect waits of 10 to 15 minutes this
year, last year there were “no lines.”
Housing officials say the first weeks of fall quarter are
usually busy, that students sort out eating routines as the quarter
progresses, and that it is unrealistic to expect the new dorms to
not throw any monkey wrenches in the system.
But if dining hall problems persist, and more importantly, if
students continue to be inconvenienced or dissatisfied, then
Housing should take a long hard look at their dining-hall master
plan.
By 2010, UCLA is projected to have guaranteed housing for
undergraduates for four years, which means about 14,500 students
will be living in university-owned housing. And yet, no new anchor
dining halls are planned to be built on the Hill.
Housing officials have crunched the numbers and seem confident
the dining halls can handle it, and for now students might give
them the benefit of the doubt.
But numbers don’t always reflect reality. Dining halls
that are technically under or at capacity might still be delaying
students, because students will not cram into every nook and cranny
of a dining hall ““ and they shouldn’t have to.
And while a 10-minute wait might not seem long, in the course of
a week that’s over an hour lost to waiting for the likes of
French toast and cranberry juice.
The current problems in the dining halls should not be written
off. Of all the things dorm residents have to worry about, getting
food when they’re hungry shouldn’t have to be one of
them.