Food plan #2

Food on campus is not a joy. It plugs that gnawing feeling in your stomach for a couple of hours until you release it in a form remarkably similar to the original. Food on campus is an imperative bordering on an expletive.

Students adapt; they eat quickly between classes, often with minimal social interaction. They order from off campus, often with minimal social interaction. Students cannot buy supplies to cook on their own because the University does not understand that “sells chips and salsa” is not the same thing as “grocery store.” The low quality of the food and the rushed pace of classes destroys any incentive to pause and enjoy a social meal.

With a big wink, administrators claim to be shocked by anti-social dining on campus. Dining is anti-social at Duke because the administrators see food as a profit center, rather than an essential social and academic component of student life. In 2002 the Duke University dining system had over $22 million in revenue, according to the Wall Street Journal. Since off campus vendors pay over 18 percent of their food-on-points sale to the University, it is likely that profit margins are at least in the mid-teens. The University likely makes a few million dollars a year off of food. The University sees its role in food service as maximizing profits rather than maximizing student interaction and development.

If the University were willing to make a few changes it could reintroduce dining as a social experience. Enjoying a good meal with friends and colleagues has advantages for students and the University. Students who regularly socialize are more likely to be active in informal university life. Joining together with fellow students after classes provides an opportunity to rehash the day, aiding academic memory and allowing for an opportunity to informally extend lessons. Beyond the social advantages, tasty food reinforces that school is about more than graphs, essays or drinking binges. In addition to the immediate advantage of better informal university life and a healthier attitude toward pleasure, improving the eating situation would make students more likely to remember Duke in a positive light, enhancing the frequency and size of donations. Students that are nickled-and-dimed for nuggets and ’Dillo are unlikely to be as favorable to the University.

There is hope for Duke’s eating situation. The first step is realizing that food service is an inappropriate area to make short-term profits at the expense of the current University environment and future donations. The predictable response of administrators seeking to maintain their cash cow is to ask what is specifically bad about the current food items; the correct response is to ask what is specifically good, what is specifically delectable under the current food regime. Food could increase drastically in quality while remaining at the same price if the University were willing to sacrifice some of their current profits.

While the University’s investment in better food would alleviate the problem of mediocre to bad food, this action alone may not be enough to encourage some students to eat meals together due to their wildly differing schedules. It is unreasonable to expect all students to eat all meals together. But, making a period around dinner time, say from 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. where there are no classes would allow friends and colleagues the opportunity to mesh schedules with one another for at least one meal a day. A certain portion of Duke students might be tempted to jam in extra studying during this respite. Therefore, it would make sense if the University offered 10 percent off all dine-in meals during this time period every night to encourage students to take advantage of the break to eat together.

The most important precursor to the process of improving the food at Duke is getting those in charge to realize the long-term costs of treating food service as a profit center. Students can help by putting constant pressure on administrators to improve food quality. When students are able to join together for a relaxed meal—instead of rushed, solitary, nutrition injection—it will be worth it.