Student Unioning
Earlier this week, I walked from the counseling center to the student union on campus (which houses the post office, a few book and clothing stores, some restaurants, and a defunct bowling alley).
This gave me pause to reminisce about my days as an undergrad at the University of Hartford. THAT student union had this one beat hands-down! Sure, we never had a bowling alley, the book store was in a different building, and our selection of food choices was smaller, but we had a friggin' Taco Bell! I could get nachos any day I wanted. Sure, I also learned alot at that school, matured, had fun, made some good friends, blah blah blah.....but the important thing is I had all kinds of access to yummy low-grade meat in tortilla shells, with the exception of two periods during my time there. There was a week when they had a sign up announcing a national yellow corn shortage, which our country somehow managed to live through (and keep in mind that this was in a pre-9/11 world, when we were not as prepared to handle national crises).
The other time when we were forced to abstain from meats labeled "Grade-E, but edible" was during my freshman year, when there was a period of about two weeks when most food service places on campus closed because the school couldn't figure out why so many students were falling violently ill.....several people were freaking out and complaining that the school was in the midst of an Ebola virus outbreak or something. It was weird; students were being interviewed by the local news stations and were crying and saying how scared they were of dying. THEN the university had the nerve to act surprised when it was discovered that pork and chicken scooped out of huge unrefridgerated drums can make people ill when served in public areas during cold and flu season. Go figure.
When I returned last year to work in the school's counseling center on the third floor of the student union, I created some commotion within dining services. Twice. First I dared to use the milk dispensers to try to buy {gasp!} a cup of milk. The woman at the cash register was confused and told me that the milk, which I already had in my cup and really couldn't return to the dispenser, is only for coffee (even though this is how we bought milk there four years prior). So, she decided to charge me for two colas instead (if you have two sodas, do they turn into a glass of milk?!). Since the milk would be free if it was in coffee (and since this woman was ticking me off), I asked her how much coffee I would have to add to the cup before the milk was free again....for anyone wondering, lunch ladies don't have the best sense of humor.....
The other time last year when I accidentally caused a problem was when I unwittingly used my staff-get-free-hot-beverages privilege to try and get hot chocolate, which turned out to not be included in the deal. Whatever.... Anyhow, each of these incidents inspired them to put up laminated signs informing beverage patrons that milk is only for coffee and staff cannot drink hot chocolate....I believe the signs are still there, and I enjoy that I was able to leave a legacy for the campus community beyond a commemorative brick that no one will ever read.
I wonder if they ever changed the combination to my old mailbox.....
This gave me pause to reminisce about my days as an undergrad at the University of Hartford. THAT student union had this one beat hands-down! Sure, we never had a bowling alley, the book store was in a different building, and our selection of food choices was smaller, but we had a friggin' Taco Bell! I could get nachos any day I wanted. Sure, I also learned alot at that school, matured, had fun, made some good friends, blah blah blah.....but the important thing is I had all kinds of access to yummy low-grade meat in tortilla shells, with the exception of two periods during my time there. There was a week when they had a sign up announcing a national yellow corn shortage, which our country somehow managed to live through (and keep in mind that this was in a pre-9/11 world, when we were not as prepared to handle national crises).
The other time when we were forced to abstain from meats labeled "Grade-E, but edible" was during my freshman year, when there was a period of about two weeks when most food service places on campus closed because the school couldn't figure out why so many students were falling violently ill.....several people were freaking out and complaining that the school was in the midst of an Ebola virus outbreak or something. It was weird; students were being interviewed by the local news stations and were crying and saying how scared they were of dying. THEN the university had the nerve to act surprised when it was discovered that pork and chicken scooped out of huge unrefridgerated drums can make people ill when served in public areas during cold and flu season. Go figure.
When I returned last year to work in the school's counseling center on the third floor of the student union, I created some commotion within dining services. Twice. First I dared to use the milk dispensers to try to buy {gasp!} a cup of milk. The woman at the cash register was confused and told me that the milk, which I already had in my cup and really couldn't return to the dispenser, is only for coffee (even though this is how we bought milk there four years prior). So, she decided to charge me for two colas instead (if you have two sodas, do they turn into a glass of milk?!). Since the milk would be free if it was in coffee (and since this woman was ticking me off), I asked her how much coffee I would have to add to the cup before the milk was free again....for anyone wondering, lunch ladies don't have the best sense of humor.....
The other time last year when I accidentally caused a problem was when I unwittingly used my staff-get-free-hot-beverages privilege to try and get hot chocolate, which turned out to not be included in the deal. Whatever.... Anyhow, each of these incidents inspired them to put up laminated signs informing beverage patrons that milk is only for coffee and staff cannot drink hot chocolate....I believe the signs are still there, and I enjoy that I was able to leave a legacy for the campus community beyond a commemorative brick that no one will ever read.
I wonder if they ever changed the combination to my old mailbox.....
posted by CMA @ 12:28 AM
1 Comments:
At 7:05 AM,
Anonymous said…
Well, assuming that the average person uses the coffee:milk ratio 16:1, I don't believe you could have purchased enough coffee to convince the lunch lady that your milk should have been free. Even the double gulp cup (should it even really legitimately be called a cup?) is a mere 128 oz., not nerely large enough for the copious amounts of coffee necessary. Besides, there must be some bodily limit of coffee intake.
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