Article by Laura Carter, Special to The Herald
As a first-year student at Arkansas State University but having transferred from another small college, I was shocked when I found a lack of student life on campus and available dining options on the weekends.
I personally do not go home every weekend or leave campus that often. I constantly find myself looking for things to do here on campus, or activities to participate in other than fraternity or sorority parties. I feel like, for a school the size of this one, there is a lack of student engagement. I feel the campus itself is not very welcoming on the weekends.
I have noticed a trend. The trend is that campus goes silent, and I have no idea why. I don’t know if it is because of the lack of dining options available, or the lack of university activities. I have ultimately just started to wonder if campus goes silent because students are going hungry. I believe that if more dining options were available throughout the weekend, campus would become more lively.
After speaking with multiple students, it is clear that the University needs to offer more dining options. On weekends, the cafeteria is open, but no other options are available.
Ravon Hall, a sophomore psychology major from West Memphis, expressed how the lack of available dining options impacts her in a negative way. “(The cafeteria) serves food that is sometimes old and stale,” she said. While many students appreciate the cafeteria, there have been an increasing number of complaints surrounding its limited hours and narrow food selection.
“Even though I appreciate the cafeteria,” said Natan Gomez, a sophomore biotechnology major from Irapuato, Mexico, “their options have been decreasing this semester and especially on weekends.” The lack of options forces students like Ravon and Natan to spend money on off-campus food or skip a meal altogether. This is especially unfair to students who may be international, without a vehicle, or unemployed.
After listening to my fellow classmates, I went to the director of operations at Sodexo, Michael Wonderly, who said, “Sodexo has never been open on the weekends, that is not in our contract we have through the University.” Wonderly told me that there are not enough students who stay on campus over the weekend to keep multiple dining options open.
Maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe if students were to stay on campus on the weekends, more dining options would become available.
Multiple students have said that campus on the weekends is boring, and that social events, community events and activities on the weekend are lacking. I think that the lack of community involvement at this university is a serious problem. I don’t think that the school or the community are very involved with each other, and the hush of the weekend is just a symptom. If the University worked to implement more activities and create more entertainment, like a local 5k or something else with an incentive to the students, then student life would thrive and more dining options would be needed.
I believe that campus life and campus dining go hand and hand, and if one thing changes, I think the other will follow. Personally, I am ready to see some things change around here so I can be happy that it’s the weekend, and not worried about how I’m going to eat.
Categories: Opinion
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