By Jacob Peller, Staff Writer

Published Oct. 22, 2014

I try not to be overly critical of the same thing. Often times when we start to nitpick a subject we begin to see the entire subject as flawed. I’m aware of this fact.

So, generally, if there is something negative I look for the positives as well.

In a previous article, I wrote about how the cafeteria’s new design was, in nicer words, more about making the space look nicer for the tours and pictures than it was about actually making it easier to eat at the cafeteria.

With this negative critique, I figured it would be best to move onto other topics, but like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, “Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.”

Before I go into what the cafeteria has once again done wrong, you’ll need a little backstory into why this whole situation has me so upset.

For the past three weeks I’ve been battling illness after illness, most likely due to the changing weather. In the end, my doctor said I need to stick to healthy and low carb foods, specifically she said that I should cut out greasy foods like burgers and pizza.

Some of you may have already figured out that the things you’ll find in the cafeteria are one part burger, one part pizza and a tiny bit healthy.

But there is at least a place where I can get healthy options, so that’s good right? At least that’s what I used to think.

A while back, I went back to the cafeteria on the weekend and found that the healthy options close down until Monday and I was left with almost no options to eat.

Sure, there is salad, but it’s both unrealistic and frankly unfair to expect anyone who has to juggle a schedule with an exercise regimen to fill all the bodies’ needs on salad alone.

When I asked a number of students what they thought about this the majority didn’t mind; after all, they mostly ate from the pizza and burger stations.

And, to be frank, I don’t disagree with their choice. If it weren’t for my sickness, I’d be doing the exact same thing.

But here’s the thing, we are a campus that loves to show how diverse we are in almost everything we do.

I know, of course, that usually applies to race, but isn’t it a little hypocritical to say that we are all about being fair to everyone when we assume that all college students have the same terrible diet.

I also heard the stupid excuse that since so many people leave campus on the weekends that we’d just be wasting money by making the food that not as many students eat on average.

Let’s be real, the reason you go to a place that serves a multiple options is so you can eat different things; when you leave one or two options you don’t even deserve to be a college cafeteria.

Instead, you’re just a glorified and slightly less healthy middle school cafeteria; and, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we’d rather not discuss the horror stories that we’ve all had with them (cardboard tasting pizza squares…ugh).

Not to mention, the dessert counter is always churning out cookies, cakes and ice cream.

When the fuck did we decide that we all deserve to have dessert instead of an actually healthy meal?

I’ve had issues with the cafeteria before, but like most of us, I’ve never felt like it was a big deal because I didn’t think there was anything wrong with pizza every day.

Lately however, I have begun to actually care about what goes into my body.

This failing, with the issues surrounding the new design and how we are barely allowed to use our meal swipes for guests, I’m beginning to believe that the cafeteria will never improve.