Fourth
Meal Fails to Keep Spirit in Dascomb Move
By
Kari Wethington
Fourth meal is a legacy, an Oberlin tradition as
beloved and bizarre as streaking through Mudd during midterms. However,
Sunday night’s unveiling of the "new fourth meal"
made it clear that midnight snacking is now the antithesis of what
late-night dining at Oberlin once was. Up-rooted and moved a half-acre
across Wilder Bowl from its former base in the Rat to the horrifying
neon glow of Dascomb’s cafeteria, food options may have expanded,
but all character and charm of the Rat have been lost.
An integral element of campus dining services for six years, fourth
meal by definition was a loud, late-night, over-crowded escape from
reality for stressed-out Obies. Any Sunday through Thursday between
10 p.m. and midnight, a line of students could be seen filing down
the hallway in Wilder’s basement to wait for a delectably
greasy snack. Hunger was never a necessary factor in whether to
"fourth meal" or not, because it was understood that the
purpose of any visit to the Rat was the social atmosphere.
Not everything has changed with the new fourth-meal regime. The
social energy is still more interesting and appetizing than the
French toast sticks, and the staff still look incredibly bored and
tired when the clock begins creeping upon the midnight hour. There
are even improvements in some respects. Dascomb seats two and a
half times more people than the Rat, so seating arrangement options
are more plentiful. Whereas in the Rat fourth meal rarely allowed
for a solitary dining experience, Dascomb’s abundance of booths
makes this possible. Needless to say, more seats also means less
waiting time. Unfortunately, this is where the improvements end.
Dascomb is awkward, unattractive and unbelievably bright. A student
seeking a post-library snack session is not generally looking for
a well-lit environment. The neon intensity of Dascomb, a cafeteria
that seems to utilize stadium-scale wattage, facilitates nothing
more than neurological overkill. Equally detrimental to the fourth
meal heritage is Dascomb’s pastel plush-and-vinyl booths —
decades removed from the Rat’s retro mahogany interior. Sure,
it was fun to bash the Rat’s décor (photos of wheat
fields and golf sketchings), but somehow it was oddly soothing.
Dascomb also lacks the Rat’s trademark blaring music, hand
picked by the student staff. In one week at the Rat you could hear
everything from ’Nsync and Bob Dylan to Smashing Pumpkins,
all in perfect complement to the chocolate mousse pie and fruit
salad. At this point, Dascomb has no musical accompaniment to fourth
meal, but Associate Director of Residential Life and Services Michelle
Gross says this will soon change. “It’s hard to move
the hustle and bustle of Wilder to a setting like Dascomb,”
Gross said, “but music will make it more enjoyable.”
For the most part, the fourth meal menu seems to be sticking to
tradition: Sundays are breakfast foods and Wednesdays are tacos
and burritos. (In fact, Wednesday proved especially refreshing with
its double taco or breakfast option. The dilemma for more than a
few sampling students became, “Bean burrito or breakfast burrito?”)
Dascomb’s mammoth proportions do allow for easier access to
food and a slightly wider range of foods. Gross said that the fourth
meal menu will slowly evolve, with new options brought in gradually
to keep things fresh.
The bottom line? If you are hungry and it’s late at night,
Dascomb will be there to pull you out even when your flex dollars
gone. There’s plenty of food, no lines and lots of space.
For first-years, fourth meal is probably close to heaven. For the
older, fourth meal fundamentalists, Dascomb just doesn’t quite
cut it. The question now is, when does the Feve re-open?
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