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As a recent transplant to Hart Hall, I realize just how screwed I am every time my stomach rumbles.
As nice as it is to live in this particular residence hall, I am faced daily with the dilemma of dining since there are no dining commons even remotely close to my location. The residents of Hancock and Oak halls also share my troubles, since they are in the same area of campus.
If the residents of these halls want to eat at a dining commons, their closest two choices are either Stodder or Stewart commons, which are almost equidistant from Hart. They are both a little less than a half-mile away, I’ve actually measured it on my car’s trip meter.
This adds up to almost a mile round-trip whenever one goes to eat. This fact hits home especially hard this time of year. Who wants to trudge a mile through 2 feet of snow and freezing, blustery winds just to grab a bite to eat between classes?
This is especially detrimental to students who are on a tight schedule, who only have a few minutes to eat between their classes or jobs. A leisurely lunch break is not possible for the residents of these three halls, since our dining experience involves a mile of hiking.
The residents of all the other halls on campus reading this may not know just how good they have it. Especially those who live in York and Stodder halls. They merely need to walk downstairs in their pajamas to get a hot meal.
The residents of the northeast section of campus are even treated to the dining commons of their choice, since they have two right in their backyard, Hilltop and Stewart.
The University of Maine, in its infinite wisdom, could simply have left Wells Commons open as a dining commons — problem solved.
Wells was switched to a conference center a few years ago. So, no longer can the residents of Hart, Oak and Hancock simply walk a few feet to get a meal like the rest of the students on this campus can.
I have no idea why the university decided to make the conversion. It either did not assess the inconvenience that it would cause students, or it simply didn’t care. I suspect the latter.
But there is another option for my fellow residents and I. We could just walk to Memorial Union and have our choice of food there. The only problem — besides that the Union is also quite a hike — is dining funds.
Any time meals are purchased at the Union, it subtracts from the dining funds that you are allotted at the beginning of the semester, in accordance with the meal plan that you have chosen.
Meals at the Union can cost anywhere from $5 to $10. Even with a variety of meal plans to choose from, the most dining funds you can receive is $500. That means that the most Union meals you can get out of a semester is about 100, if you stay at $5 per meal and never order delivery.
In a 15-week semester, you have about $35 per week in dining funds. So, you can get seven meals at the Union per week, as long as you never pay more that $5 for a meal. That means you can get seven meals a week from the Union. This is a problem, unless you’re anorexic.
So, I pay $1,500 a semester for seven commons meals a week and $500 in dining funds. I only eat at the commons two to three times a week. In other words, the university is making a killing off of me, as well as many of my fellow residents.
The $500 will undoubtedly run out well before the end of the semester, since Union meals are expensive and delivery is even worse. My roommate has already spent $230 of his dining funds, and this is only the beginning of the semester’s fourth week.
The university needs to either re-open Wells Commons or offer a meal plan with more dining funds. The administration should try walking a mile–through the snow– in our shoes.
Nathan Webster is a senior journalism major.
