The 5 million dollar question

Off campus, in Reality, when a business finds itself with an increased demand for their services, they will typically examine the most cost-effective way to maintain the consumer's need for that service. Very rarely is the conclusion reached that a $5 million expansion is the best course of action.

In the case of the Redeker Center, specifically Piazza, the problem is seating availability — a service that can only be provided while the consumer is within the walls of the establishment. This means someone who wants to increase traffic during any given 24-hour period is left with two options: increase the size of the facility or increase the hours the service can be provided.

The most beautiful part about this for the Department of Residence is the fact that increasing dining center hours can be tested. They could try extending meal hours by 30 minutes before and after the current time frame. They could use those surveys that everyone is so crazy about and ask students what times they typically eat certain meals, then adjust their dining center hours accordingly. Five-million-dollar decisions are usually good ones to troubleshoot.

Once upon a time, I lived in the quad, from fall 2009 through spring 2011, and therefore ate most of my meals in the Piazza. There were many instances where I would miss certain meal times because of class or participation in other activities.

It was difficult for me to accept the fact I was just so different from the typical student that the DOR couldn't possibly accommodate my abnormal schedule. I ended up attempting to eat 87 meals between Thanksgiving break and the end of fall semester in 2010. But hey, I sought help, I accepted it, I moved on. That's life… or so I thought.

I began to meet other students who, like myself, operated on a non-DOR approved schedule. I no longer felt alone because I knew there were others who shared my (hunger) pain.

My point is there are plenty of students who would appreciate extended dining hours. So why will the DOR spend $5 million to fix a problem that could potentially be solved by increasing dining center hours?

One theory is because it will look pretty. Think about it: we are a society so intertwined with the media that most individuals are indistinguishable from the general consumer. Because all advertising works the same way — as an appeal to emotion — we become susceptible to impulse buying.

This is relevant because a college visit doesn't walk you into a classroom to experience a lecture; you are paraded through the workout facility, basketball court, student union and dining centers. They show us fancy new dorms and the expansion of on-campus convenience stores and we can't help but be impressed. All of these things appeal to one's senses and emotions.

For some people, they choose the university at which they'll pursue their higher education because of a campus tour. When they pay to attend that university they see it as paying for their education, where the university more likely sees it as means to create more fantastic facilities that attract wide-eyed students with loan money to spend.

I understand there is a difference between paying tuition and paying room and board, but I won't have to worry about waiting in line to eat on a college campus if there aren't enough professors available to teach classes to keep me here.

The priority projects should be those that help fulfill a university's mission statement. Last time I checked I was supposedly being offered a world-class university education, not more tables in the Piazza.

That being said, I do understand that there is more to the project than just the expansion of the Piazza. I recognize that an increase in students living on one side of campus requires certain changes in accommodations. Fresh Beginnings and Biscotti's would be expanded along with a reorganization of the DOR and potential expansion of the computer lab.

I am a big believer in cause-and-effect relationships, the idea that nothing happens in a vacuum. It's like the idea of "you are what you eat," or how an organization can only be as good as its members, so you must recruit with the integrity you want your members to exhibit. If a university wants to be known as a powerful academic presence, they must set that standard for their incoming students as opposed to attracting them by putting on a beauty pageant.

Then again, education may not be your calling if you take your motto from Titus Maccius Plautus when he says, "You must spend money to make money."