If there’s one good thing about the current dining options on
campus, it’s that, along with my fellow dwellers of the west side
of campus, I walk so far to get a meal that I no longer worry about
gaining weight.

Like most residents on this end of campus, I couldn’t help
feeling shortchanged when DeMattias Hall’s cafeteria was
unexpectedly shut down during the summer. While the quality of
campus cuisine has skyrocketed in my three years at Saint Louis
University, its accessibility has not.

As SLU continually adapts as a university, future consideration
must be given to the busy schedules of its students, and their
inability to regularly afford $9 meals.

In the dark ages of SLU, when the Busch Memorial Center still
existed and the skylight above Griesedieck cafeteria did not,
dining options were actually quite spread out across campus.

The old BMC featured a food court in its basement, complete with
a Pizza Hut, Chick-Fil-A and Oscar Mayer Hot Dog Construction Co.
An a la carte restaurant, the Marketplace, similar to the current
Grand Market existed a floor above. Finally, we also actually had a
coffee shop–Starbucks no less.

Thank God for Au Bon Pain, because other than that fine eatery,
I’m still waiting for the rest of the Busch Student Center to shape
up. Judging by the sheer volume of service and quality complaints,
Wackadoo’s has yet to find its footing as a restaurant at SLU.

I’d elaborate on the aforementioned Grand Market, but they’re
only open for lunch, and since a steak salad and plate of steamed
rice cost me $9, I’m loathe to seek a return engagement.

Expensive food seems to be the trend for this year, rendering my
supposed “flex” dollars more rigid and useless than ever. My
surplus of $200 in flex was drained in a matter of weeks, to avoid
the daily traffic jam at the Gries cafe. And believe me, I don’t
mind eating there. For those who complain of “dorm food,” be
thankful the name Sodexho means nothing to you underclassmen. The
mere whisper of that company is enough to send the stomach of any
Gries veteran into convulsions.

The trouble is that 30 minutes just isn’t enough time to sit
there for lunch, despite its expansion. If DeMatt was still an
option, I wouldn’t have this problem, and my parents wouldn’t yell
at me for wasting meals. Sure, there’s always Reinert, but why
stretch a long walk into a marathon?

Right now my meals are only valid at that congested cafe in
Gries, as well as restricted times and days in Au Bon Pain and
Wackadoo’s. Is it that far-fetched to establish another on-campus
eatery to accept meal plans all day, every day?

I’m not concerned with the monetary amount of the meal plans
themselves so long as I can use what I’m paying for. Allowing meal
plans at Au Bon Pain was a nice opening gesture; now, how about
extending that same courtesy to the Fusz Food Court?

Furthermore, if I could swipe a meal somewhere on this campus
after 7 p.m., I would be eternally grateful. No, Wackadoo’s on
Friday nights doesn’t measure up.

In my third year at SLU, I can finally say that the quality of
campus food meets expectations. I regret to say that I’m still
waiting for its availability to do the same. As much as I’d love to
illustrate a precise solution to this problem, I’m not an economics
major, and that’s not my job.

I’m a journalist–here to tell you, the readers, what the
problems are. I see a problem here and I don’t think I’m alone.