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Opinion

Moody cafeteria service outrageous

Brandon Burkman 
Guest Columnist

Never in my life have I paid so much for a simple service, such as a meal plan, and received such a bad product. Ever since I moved into the Moody Towers last August my expectations of the services in the "new and improved" cafeteria have consistently lowered. 

At first, I simply shrugged off the bad service, giving the benefit of the doubt to the new company providing services in the cafeteria. However, after being treated this badly at a constant rate for the past seven months, I'm ready to ask for my money back.

Cafeteria managers claim to have the "home cooking" area of the dining hall open until at least 8 p.m. But last semester, when I would have to wait to eat until after my class got out at 7 p.m., I would arrive at the cafeteria to find that everything, save the pizza and the greasiest burgers known to man, had been put away for the night. 

Next, when I did arrive in time to eat something other than pizza or cheeseburgers, I was met with servers who would much rather stand around and talk to other servers than actually do their job. If you don't want to put food on the plate, then don't snap at me when I reach for the tongs to grab just one piece of grilled chicken.

The next outrage occurred this semester when I tried to eat some breakfast before heading to work. 

I was supposed to be at work at 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning. This left very little time for me to eat breakfast between when the cafeteria was supposed to open at 10 a.m. and the latest time I could leave the dorm and still arrive to work on time, which was around 10:30 a.m. 

I stood outside the cafeteria's doors with other residents until 10:20 a.m., when the doors were finally opened. Not only did they open late, but for those 20 minutes I waited, a cashier at the front register simply sat there and did nothing to hurry up the process of opening the doors so we could all eat. This isn't a one-time deal; it has happened repeatedly on the weekends since last August.

The final event occurred just a few mornings ago, when I arrived at the cafeteria to eat breakfast and was met with absolutely no food. Apparently, just like McDonald's, if you get to the cafeteria even a second past 10:30 a.m. you're just not going to get any eggs or bacon. The only choices given to my girlfriend and I were stale cereal or salad. There wasn't even a waffle bar, which, if I'm not mistaken, is usually out all day.

I would have ignored these facts had they only happened every once in a while, but as these outrages occur so alarmingly often, it's time to do something about it. In today's world of increasing tuition and fees, I think it's time that we actually saw something improve for all the money we're spending.

Burkman, a guest columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu