Tragedy at the tray center
I don’t know about you, but on some occasions I find myself stopping by the Atrium for lunch. It’s not the best, or the best priced food in campus or adjacent to campus. When I go, it’s normally convenient.
The last two times I’ve gone to the Atrium, there have been no trays for getting my purchases. I inquired about them, thinking they had been in a wash of some kind. I was informed that they no longer have trays as a response to thefts of trays. I can’t help observing that with this resolve there’s an undertone of the scornful over-reaction. “…Well, if they can’t behave, screw ’em…”
You see, I’m what some people call “a fat guy”. . As part of my fat-guy lifestyle, I consume a large amount of food. This means that I have a lot of food to carry. I also, in a forum outside of “contemplating” to reruns of Nightcourt featuring the luscious Markie Post, lack manual dexterity. I count on the tray’s wide surface as the conveyance and work area upon which I put all of the gluttonous booty. I’m not talking now about my butt, but what will soon be part of it. Without a tray, there is no provision for sauces from Chick Fil A. There isn’t much option for waffle fries to manage a drink, and two containers; I need to hold my drink by pinching the rim of the drink with the lid off. Sometimes, my fingers are covered in things I would have reserved for not putting in my beverage. I have not yet adapted to these new conditions with hygienic adjustments like hand washing. My gut is not yet large enough to rest a beverage on without being seated… but I’m working on it.
I find myself, not just irked, but having regretted not having perpetrated the crimes. Since I’m being punished for them, I would have enjoyed some wanton destruction. I imagine myself wearing those trays, bungeed to my back. Some of them, glued in offsets jutting from the line of my spine. I’d run about the brickyard, shouting “…I am Stego-Tray!… I am herbivorous!.. Predators, Fear my spiked Stego-Tray tail!
I’d fixture them about a large hub and use them to propel a flat bottomed boat across the Mississippi! I’d float next to it on a raft, crudely fashioned from other trays.
I’d log them with foam so they could be kick-boards. I’d distribute them to causes like teaching lactose-intolerant, milk-addicted, flatulent-children how to swim. Some of those kids don’t even have to kick.
I would strap them to my arms and shout out, “… I am Daedalus, creator of the Maze at Minos and first mortal to catch the winds with wings of my own design!… Icarus! Stop! You can’t leave the Atrium without bussing your tray! oh my son! my beautiful son!…”
But I have no trays to do these things. I suppose MacGyver would use his engineering text as a makeshift tray. Maybe I’m an obese martyr and I should free my hands and tear the titulus down from above my head and use it as a tray.
I can’t help wondering if this is the rapport food services is trying to cultivate with its clientèle. While I’m not happy that trays have been stolen, I think it’s reasonable to expect that other, less Draconian measures might be tried. I think that it’s fair to say that the removal of the trays has been irksome to the people that this business is serving. Since this location is essentially an exclusive franchise, it does not excuse its management from the basic tenants of customer service. It is my hope that this change in accommodations will be reconsidered. If this is the dietary intervention it feels like, I can only change when I’m ready to change.
Kent B. MeiswinkelPh.D. Candidate, Engineering
Housing is unsatisfactory
The unsatisfactory conditions of University Housing are unacceptable. As of mid-November the option of air condition was taken away from us. With the air condition being completely shut off when the temperature outside is in the low eighties, this in return makes living and studying conditions almost intolerable. Many can’t receive the sleep needed during exam week and many others were struggling to keep focus when studying while bearing the heat. We as students should have the right to control the temperature in our own rooms. Not only because the weather outside is at a record high, but because of each person having his or her own personal comfort level when it comes to temperature in his or her own room.
Another concern I have with housing is the mandatory early closing times they have. We are forced to leave our rooms by noon the day after exams. The C-Stores and the Carmichael Gymnasium are still open until the 21st of December. Where are the employees that live on campus suppose to live? The reasons they have jobs is to make extra money to make the financial struggle on their parents/themselves easier. For those three extra days, what are they suppose to do, rent a hotel? This seems to be counterproductive if they have to find somewhere to live, they are more likely to be spending more money than they make on those days
Jessica HaglerSophomore, Math Education
Drunken Driving
Drunken driving is one of the most dangerous and thoughtless actions that a person can do. When someone makes the choice to drive drunk, they not only put their own life in danger but also their passengers and the other drivers on the road.
As someone who has been personally affected by the negative effects of drunken driving, I ask you to do everyone a favor and not hit the roads after a night of drinking. Yes, drinking is a part of the college experience but that doesn’t make it okay to drive home. There are plenty of alternative options to get where you are going.
Cabs work well, a designated driver is great. It’s up to you how you will avoid the drunken driving but it will help you in the long run. By not driving drunk, you will stay off the roads at a time when your car is a potentially lethal weapon.
Listed below are a couple of trusted and widely used local cab numbers that will come to assistance if you need that late night ride back to your house or dorm. Please use them, and stay safe.
Raleigh Cab ServicesCardinal Cab Inc: 919-828-3228White Horse Transportation: 919- 782- 5893
Matt OdrezinSophomore, Communication
