By: Georgi DeMartino | Opinion Editor
The opinions below are mine and do not reflect those of SRU Mosaic Newspaper as an organization.
Salve Regina’s Miley Cafeteria had a glamorous makeover in the summer of 2013. A new lounge was added to the garden level, with hip looking, exposed ceilings. The lounge includes a new, and incredibly anticipated, Starbucks. Miley Mart has been replaced by a conference room, and relocated into a small alcove behind Starbucks. Any freshman from this year on will never know the greatness, or grossness, of Original Burger, which was replaced by Campus Life offices.
In order to increase space in the cafeteria itself, there was also an addition made extending the cafeteria. The proposed plan stated that this expansion would accomplish two major goals:
- Seating in the cafeteria would increase by 180 seats, or about 50 percent
- The existing seating and food lines will be replaced by a modern marketplace concept consisting of seven interactive dining stations disbursed around the cafeteria.
Okay, that’s great. Let’s start with number 1. If seating was supposed to increase by 50 percent, someone needs to explain to me why I still can’t find a seat at lunchtime. I end up spending more time wandering the new dining hall like a lost puppy, instead of eating.
While the renovations provide students with ascetically a nicer environment to eat and socialize the seating in Miley needs work. Yes, they took out the long tables that seated 4 to 6 people, but replaced a large number of them with tables for 2 or 4. The new booths are comfy and cool, however, I’m still struggling to find a seat. Wasn’t this expansion supposed to fix that?
Moving on to number 2. The days of independently making your own sandwiches or decide how many chicken nuggets you can have are over. People serving lunch might be more useful for serving sizes, but no one messes with my chicken nugget addiction, got it? If I want 10 chicken nuggets and I only get 6, not only do I have to feel judged by the person serving me for asking for more, but also the person waiting in the line – which still exists – behind me.
That’s right, I said it, there’s still a line for food, in case anyone hasn’t been to the new Miley. This hasn’t changed. I thought the goal was to replace the food lines with this “modern marketplace concept”. Well when all the real food is only at one station, it’s obviously going to have a line.
Speaking of the food – the renovations tastes like it ended with the cosmetics and surpassed the actual food.
Moving on, I know the Miley staff behind the sandwich station makes my wraps better than I ever could pretend to. Visually my wraps and sandwiches are professional and manageable. The difficulty errupts from the process of getting a beautifully wrapped sandwich. Having to ask, “can I have more mayonnaise” or “do you think you can take a little of the turkey off”, continues to make me feel like my dietary choices are being monitored and judged by those preparing/serving and my peers. Plus it’s just plain awkward!
It’s pretty clear that I’m not always the healthiest eater. I should probably spend more time at the salad bar, which is thankfully still self-serve from what I’ve heard.
