I am no glutton, pig or compulsive eater. In fact, with my busy schedule, I typically eat one meal a day. But I just love food, and I would like to think that many Saint Louis University students are on the same page. So, I often find myself wondering if I am the only one who thinks campus dining is simply terrible. Our options are slim, and the options we do have are less than great.
Shouldn’t we be able to dine better?
We have a couple of cafeterias, but I don’t know if anyone besides freshmen eat there. We have a Kentucky Fried Chicken that doesn’t even sell real fried chicken (just chicken strips), we have a Pizza Hut Express that only sells personal-pan pizzas; and an Au Bon Pain that is “pain”-fully bad when compared to the local St. Louis Bread Companies. Other poor eateries are not worth mentioning.
Before I continue bashing our campus cuisine, allow me to point out a few positives. Salsarita’s in the Billiken Club is not that bad. I’d go so far as to say it’s on par with the Qdoba on Lindell Boulevard. We have a Subway that offers everything a regular Subway does, and the Bean is a decent coffee shop. I frequent it because the service is quick and the workers are friendly.
That being said, I can now freely state that Chartwells is an abomination.
When I go into most of the eateries on campus, I have come to expect sub-par service, substandard food and long waits, should my visit fall during standard lunch or dinner hours, which makes me wonder why Chartwells deserves the monopoly on campus dining.
Some of Chartwells’ em-ployees are friendly, and seem to provide good service. Sometimes, the food is good, too. But, more often than not, this is the exception rather than the rule.
But why should Chart-wells worry? They have no real competition, no rivals to encourage higher quality and lower prices. What we need here is some good, old-fashioned competition. I won’t get into an economics lesson, but I’d take a duopoly-just two good eateries-over what we have now.
One might argue that there is off-campus competition for Chartwells. Who says you can’t leave the campus and eat at Vito’s, Jimmy John’s or Crazy Bowls and Wraps if you want something different? Even this presents a problem. Though some places do accept Billiken Bucks (which is a whole different can of worms), many do not accept flex points, which are inherently part of the meal plan students are required to buy, whether they live on campus or not.
Herein lies the problem: Chartwells eateries are the only places where students can use their mandatory meal plans.
I’m sure that most students won’t want to spend precious money on groceries or take-out when they already have a plan that is supposed to provide food for them.
I suppose students can deal with annual tuition increases and meal plan hikes, but why can’t there be something to show for the increases besides statues?
Something also needs to be done about the late-night dining options around campus. Anyone who has visited another university, like other Midwestern state schools such as the University of Illinois or Mizzou, knows that a place to eat after midnight is normally standard.
Yet, all we have for late-night dining within walking distance is Jimmy John’s. Not that I have a vendetta against JJ’s (besides the fact that their sandwiches all taste the same), but, I ask, where is the variety? Granted, there is a Del Taco on Grand Boulevard, but I decided to not count that because of its notorious griminess. And one is putting one’s life in danger walking to McDonald’s or Jack in the Box anytime after the sunset.
Why don’t we have a pizza place that stays open until 3 a.m.? How about an on-campus diner? College students, for the most part, like to stay up late. When they are hungry (or drunk), how can they be expected to get food? It is wrong and unfair, although the lucky ones with cars can drive to a fast food joint, or whatever tickles their fancy, whenever they want. But the point is, they shouldn’t have to. The only time we have other dining hours is during finals week, and, honestly, I am more likely to be sleeping through those night than during any other week of the semester.
The sad thing here is that I am only scratching the surface as far as complaints about the dining situation on campus goes. But I need to stop ranting-I’m starting to get hungry, and, as long as I’m a SLU student, there isn’t much I can do about it.
Landon Burris is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
