Beef with the Reef
Written by Frank Kurtz, Sep 4, 2012, 0 Comments
After a long, sweaty day of move-in to Residence Hall One, packed with work and topped off with some brews downtown, I return to campus at 11:30 in the evening and decide to go to the dining hall to grab some grub before heading off to my room. To my surprise, the dining hall in the new University Student Center (I call it the University Revenue Building, or URB) is closed and had been since 8:30 p.m.
You don’t close a collegiate dining facility at 8:30 p.m.
Monday (hurricane day), after a day of eating strawberries, cereal and sandwiches in my room while watching the rain bands, I mosey over to the URB at 8:45 p.m. only to be painfully reminded of the closing time.
You don’t close a collegiate dining facility at 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday I got my first taste of the dining hall’s food, which is typical collegiate cafeteria stuff. The layout of the service lines is awkward. The grill is situated next to three other popular destinations: the drink station, the deli, and the checkout line. The grill also frequently has waiting times of 15 minutes to place an order.
The fruit punch and water are in the same fountain, so either your water is fruity or your punch is watery. A hint of flavor in my water is sometimes a treat, but I know when I reach for Hi-C I want the Real McCoy.
Back during my freshman year at USF (back when Jeb Bush was governor), the student dining hall, Argos, closed at 8 p.m. However, the other dining hall, Andros, was open until 2 a.m. daily. The place was consistently packed from midnight until 1 a.m., even more so after home football games. Since then, the main campus has added a third dining hall.
But I understand that USFSP is considerably smaller than our big brother, and our dining services mimic that.
Another gripe: On-campus organizations can no longer have those delicious sandwiches from the Tavern at Bayboro catered for our events due to the no-competition clause of Sodexo’s contract.
Last Tuesday, the dining hall was supposed to provide food for Michael Grunwald’s talk about. his new book. However, they were not set up by 5 p.m., the time that was agreed upon. Is this a preview of how campus events will be treated when arranging catering through the new dining services?
Post Script
I refuse to call the new building on campus the University Student Center (the last time I’ll refer to it as that). What is so student about it? All the student services that were supposed to be in the new building were shipped across the street to the Campus Activities Center (soon to be the “Student Life Center”). The only room that does not produce revenue for the school is the game room, the office area in the front, restrooms and janitor closets.
Besides, whenever I see “USC” I think of the University of South Carolina, and then wonder why the Gamecocks opened up a St. Petersburg branch campus.
It’s the University Revenue Building and it is the nicest dormitory in the Southeast.
One more thing: you don’t close a collegiate dining facility at 8:30 p.m.
