dining halls
West Campus House Dinners Suspended, Leaving Residents Hungry for More
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West Campus house dinners are a tradition of the past, as the COVID-19 pandemic has put a pause on the tradition until fall 2022.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/west-campus/page/2/)
West Campus house dinners are a tradition of the past, as the COVID-19 pandemic has put a pause on the tradition until fall 2022.
The new program house for student veterans is set to open on West Campus in fall 2021.
For students who live on West Campus, this semester has been characterized by disappointing food, difficulties finding friends and, for those who live in the gothics, spiders.
West Campus student staff aired out a set of grievances, asking for hazard pay and testing for live-in family members in a letter to the administration Friday — two days after RAs went on strike.
A Cornell student was stabbed in an attempted robbery on the intersection of South Avenue and West Avenue on Sunday evening.
What happened to my fevered West Campus dining hall hopping days where I milked all the money Cornell was forcing us to pay when all we really wanted was to live in a convenient place close to campus? Well, I quickly learned as my weeks grew busier that the West Campus dining hall system is 100% not worth the money, and no amount of meal swipes can make it be so. So what’s specifically wrong with the West Campus meal plan? The dining halls are actually more inconvenient than convenient, the food is repetitive and definitely not worth the money and the system makes you feel guilty for eating anywhere else.
Every spring, dietetics students of Nutritional Sciences 4880: Applied Dietetics in Food Service Systems learn how to operate and manage a food service system with practical, hands-on application culminating in themed dinners in West Campus dining rooms. Students are “divided into teams to work with Cornell Dining chefs to design a nutritionally balanced, yet creative and delicious dinner for the greater Cornell community,” and several of us in the dining department had the pleasure of experiencing and reviewing each themed dinner this year. Here’s what we thought!
Big-eyed and stunned, my friends and I gasped while reading a brochure for a West Campus main house. It was as if someone listened to all our complaints about our freshman dorms and knew exactly what we wanted. Clean restrooms, air conditioning and proximity to Collegetown were enough to convince us that West is the best. But no exceptional amenity comes without a hefty price tag. Living in the West Campus House System includes a particularly frustrating commitment: enrolling in a dining contract for unlimited meal swipes — a massive $3,000 semesterly bill that totals to a rough $4,500 cost of living on campus.
One Saturday last spring, my friend and I found an open piano room in the basement of Becker House on West Campus to break away from reality for a moment. I talked, laughed, but also enjoyed the sounds of the piano I could produce. Inspired by my playing, my friend encouraged me to perform in Becker House’s talent show later that month, which he was hosting. Unfortunately, as we later discovered, because I was not a resident of Becker House, I was unable to participate in the talent show since it was held during a House Dinner. House Dinners, held every Wednesday night in each West Campus dining hall, are a distinct occasion in which the House Chef prepares a special menu, entertainment is provided by Cornell’s student organizations and faculty and students come together.
As I navigate my way through West Campus dining halls, Trillium, Terrace and yes, even Okenshields, I realize my appreciation for Cornell’s food extends beyond the meals the University provides and into the accessibility and openness this community has for vegetarians and vegans alike.