The Freshman Dining Hall Experience

After waiting in line for 30 minutes, I finally enter the dining hall, ready to scan my Cornell ID via the GET app, a process similar to Apple Pay. I then check-in with the worker indicating if I’ve made a reservation or not. A two-step process, made to be simple and efficient, successfully plays its part. Once the dining hall worker checks that I have a reservation, I am yet faced with another line that wraps around the tables used to seat students. This is another 30 minutes of slowly inching forward towards actual food.

SUSSER | The Waiting Game

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about pickles. But more importantly, I began with a story. The story was one of anxiousness, frustration and boredom: the wait for a sandwich at CTB — an indeterminate purgatory, where time hinges upon the complexity of an order. (If you’re lucky, a cream cheese on Long Island will cost only five precious Cornell minutes. But on a busy Sunday morning, you could stake out a spot at Olin before that Cali Sunrise is ready for pickup).