By Shree Nadkarni
Imagine you’re a freshman and you want a quick bite to eat before your next class. It’s time for Meal Equivalency, which means you’re in luck, as you can get $7.76 of food without spending points.
Until recently, everyone, especially freshman, could get sandwiches, chips, burritos, chicken fingers and more from T-Dubs, the cafeteria located below Travers and Wolfe halls. Unfortunately, because of the reopening of the Lions Den, T-Dubs is no longer open for meal equiv, since it does not open until 6 p.m.
Meal equiv is a big hit with many students, as I have seen the Library Café, Traditions, the Lions Den and the Education Café teeming with students between the hours of 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. If T-Dubs were open during this time, it would offer a way to move freshmen away from these locations and better control crowds.
As a freshman, my friends and I would stop by T-Dubs after biology class before picking up things from our dorms and going to our biology lab. I found out how convenient T-Dubs and its choices can be to freshmen.
The College might argue that it does not have enough staff for day shifts at T-Dubs. But if students could eat at T-Dubs during the day, the crowds would be smaller in all locations, and therefore, there could be fewer employees at each location, as well.
In addition, the possible tearing down of the Towers discussed in a forum on Wednesday, Oct. 26, might be why the administration would think keeping T-Dubs open for meal equiv is a waste of employee labor. However, as a freshman living in Travers Hall, I — along with other freshmen and upperclassmen who frequented T-Dubs during the daylight hours — still want to have an experience that allows us to keep the convenience and accessibility we had before the Lions Den reopened.
T-Dubs, which offers many late-night dining options that I love, could be even better through the inclusion of meal equiv due to its convenience and utility as a means of crowd control. Some of the food choices offered at T-Dubs are not found anywhere else at the College, and freshmen can use it as a way to get back to their dorms during a busy schedule or just a place to hang out and socialize with friends.
