Let’s face it: every day, Columbia students debate whether to hit up John Jay dining hall or Hewitt’s quainter, cuter cafeteria. Historically, Hewitt has won the competition hands-down, evidenced by the painfully long lines.
During the week, Hewitt is always a better bet. Famous (addicting) thin-crust pizza during lunch. The Pasta Station. Better looking lettuce. On the weekend, I suppose Hewitt services assume that most students go out or leave campus, so the selection is significantly less impressive. John Jay, on the other hand, vamps up their services – maybe because they feel sorry for you. “Oh, you’re not going out this Saturday? Here, have a steak.”
And that’s a steak that you don’t have to wait for… Until now.
Maybe the freshman haven’t yet realized that they won’t be using all their meals – try as you might, wee ones, it ain’t gonna happen – or maybe the deliciousness available at Hewitt has become one of the campus’s better kept secrets of late. In any case, nowadays, you have to wait – even in John Jay – for your food.
The lines to swipe into the dining hall have reached Hewitt proportions, and students must also queue up to serve themselves food. As one sophomore so succinctly put it: “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS! I HAVE TO WAIT FOR MY MEAT!”
But here is the real tragedy: there are no more blue trays. That’s right, ladies and gents. Those notorious blue trays with the colossal John Jay emblem have disappeared. The astute observer will have noticed a sign right where the tray pick-up used to be explaining why we must laboriously carry around our dishware sans assistance. Allegedly, the lack of trays helps to save the environment. And it’s “NY sophisticated.”
Because it’s so sophisticated scraping the dregs of your meal into the trash bin – and it’s still unclear to me what you do if you don’t finish your drink. My theory is that the real reason for taking away the trays is that CU dining services thinks we’re all getting a little too comfortable with the freshman 15, if you catch my drift. Think how easy it was to pile on the crap when you could fit several plates on your tray. Now, you can really only comfortably carry one plate and a drink. While balancing a spoon on your nose.
So now come twelve o’clock, it’ll be time to make the decision. Which dining hall will you choose? The environment-hating Hewitt with it’s bountiful trays and deliciousness? Or John Jay with classic Ivy League ambiance that doesn’t look like a carbon copy of the canteen from Camp?