Editorial

Paying For Your Pudding

It’s understood that campus dining at Oberlin is a force prone to abrupt and unpleasant surprises. Students never know what to expect from Campus Dining Services from semester to semester. Whether it’s a new dining company, closing of beloved dining halls or the eradication of favorite tofu dishes from weekly menus, each semester is bound to bring new concerns.
This semester, Campus Dining Services and Residential Life and Services seem to be pulling a lot of fast ones on unsuspecting students. First it was the moving of fourth meal from the Rat to Dascomb, and then the confusing new meal plan options. While it’s nice to have a greater number of options in meal-and-flex-dollar combinations, the fact is that most students, even those living off-campus, are required to remain on the campus dining plan for the entirety of their Oberlin careers. It’s not enough to give students more options when it’s clear that no matter which plan a student chooses, meal prices are already exorbitant and only getting more expensive.
Students pay more for most grocery items at the DeCafé than they would at local grocers, and the campus store has a much more limited selection. Wilder Hall may be lacking in space to expand the DeCafé, but if flex dollars go hand in hand with enrollment here at Oberlin, it may just be a worthwhile project for the College. Talking about space restraints on the DeCafé seems especially ridiculous when considering the neighboring Rathskellar, which has become practically off-limits to students. Students are cramped in the DeCafé for morning coffee breaks while the Rat opens its spacious dining area to faculty and staff — or students willing to spend precious cash or flex dollars — for lunch.
The bottom line is that food is not only necessary for survival in the rough world of a liberal arts education, but something that students want to enjoy. Though the town of Oberlin would not be complete without off-campus eateries like Lorenzo’s, the Java Zone and The Mandarin, it should be a priority of the College to ensure in its dining services the same comfort, quality and selection offered by those restaurants. CDS should not be in competition with town establishments, but should be committed to student satisfaction. Recent budget restraints may make this harder, but is no excuse for more excuses.

Inspect This

Many on-campus students are angered by recent unannounced fire inspections performed over the last week.
However, the College is technically within its rights to inspect rooms without notice. The lack of notification not only comes from an effort to catch more violations but also from disorganization on the part of Residential Life and Services. Unfortunately, it seems to be a common theme that students are slighted by lack of consideration from ResLife, such as students living in lounges.
If ResLife is going to do surprise inspections to try to catch more violations, they should be more direct about it. At the first hall meeting, RAs should clearly state that they will do inspections sometime without notice instead of being irresolute about the subject as they often are.
On the other hand, students need to understand that the intent of fire inspections is actually for their own well-being and that if fire inspections are announced excessively beforehand, they become little more than a joke.
While off-campus landlords often have to give 24 -hour notice before entering rental property, almost all leases have clauses that allow landlords to enter if they suspect conditions that would be hazardous to their property. In terms of dorms, bagging smoke detectors is a serious risk to the safety of the building and students.
There will always be some students that bag their smoke detectors as they toke a bowl or whatever, but keeping them bagged for extended periods of time is perilous to fellow students. Drug users are, of course, not the only students upset by “surprise inspections” — there are students that genuinely feel that their privacy is endangered by unannounced inspections. Dorm life is essential to the Oberlin experience because it fosters the idea of community. By remaining flexible with fire inspections that ensure personal safety and that of neighbors, each on-campus student is doing his or her part to enrich that spirit of community so integral to Oberlin’s mission.