We’d better lower our expectation for college food service. It WILL be suboptimal. There will be fewer selections, fewer hot (perhaps not so hot) entrees, more limited hours, etc. All-you-can-eat may mean having the same entree more than once.
I don’t think that having all-you-can-eat dining halls will be anywhere near the list of student’s primary concerns for the upcoming semester.
https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/covid-19-going-back-to-college-safely. Anyone watching??
I’m starting to feel badly for sophomores, juniors and seniors that have to live on campus. People here paint such a bleak picture. Hopefully it isn’t as terrible as you all suggest.
Actually disagree with that! Bowdoin’s food is awesome and we pay for it and S19 eats a ton. If he can’t get enough food or the right kind of food and we have to supplement him somehow then we will have to pay even more. That’s an issue. Quality of life in nice dorms with quality food was another reason he chose the college. Yell at me all you want about that but, when you’re working hard and running 70 miles a week, you need healthy food and a lot of it.
If people can go into a Chipotle and order their made to order food then colleges can do that too. That’s how I’ve heard it could work. Cafeteria workers will serve you what you’d like instead of you taking it yourself and then you can go back for more in cases where colleges have all you can eat. You guys really need to stop with the gloom.
What do we think the policy will be for kids who get the virus and live off campus? They will just be told to quarantine? Or will they be expected to quarantine somewhere where the school knows they are really doing it?
The self serve stations will be gone unless the food is pre-wrapped. Even self serve drinks are not allowed here, and no reusing the same cup. I got frozen yogurt yesterday and had to ‘glove up’ to touch the machine to put the yogurt in the cup (for me and two kids) and then the worker had to put on the toppings.
I do think the options will be cut down. Instead of 5 entree options there might be 3. Instead of bacon at every breakfast, it might be 3 times a week. Why? Because schools set their food budgets based on last year’s prices and food costs a lot more now. They are going to have to find that money somewhere. There might be the same quantity of food, just not the same variety or convenience of getting it. The 9 pm pizza may not be there (from the school deli), lunch might only last until 2 (my daughter’s main cafeteria was 7 am to 8 pm, never closing)
I don’t think they will get involved to that degree. If confirmed to have covid, 14 days of remote learning and three consecutive negative tests without symptoms, if they have or had any, before they can return to campus in any way.
Just my thought. As legal adults, not sure they can be told where to live if their premises are not on school grounds.
Interesting point though for sure
But then why would “adult” students in the dorm have to move to a different place? Kids off campus can just return to some house they live in with who knows how many kids? Sorry, I doubt some of those kids will really quarantine especially is they don’t feel so sick. Mayr they can keep them from class. How would they know if the student went on campus? Went to get food or to the library?
Yes, cafeteria workers can serve you what you like and you can go back for another serving, but you’d have to wait in a long line each time, especially with new sanitary procedures. Do you want to spend that much time on each meal?
Yeah S19 would do it. Sometimes kids just sit in cafeteria and study and keep eating, as long as they don’t have a class to get to. The main caf is a lovely place at many LACs.
Their legal ability to control on campus housing is very strong. They have the right to determine housing and housing rules. Just like the ra and rd can have someone removed or change dorms.
It’s not that your concept is wrong at all. I agree.
I just think they don’t have the ability legally to demand someone from their off campus home to a quarantine center. They probably wouldn’t want those costs and extra responsibility. It might over run their center at some schools.
They can of course limit on campus access and they will. Strictly and with a protocol in place.
@homerdog I can’t say that my s20 factored food into his college decision, despite being a hockey player who eats 2x more than my husband and I combined. However…when it came time for us to put in his dorm selection and meal plan preference, his realization that all-you-can-eat is an actual thing definitely made him smile. His meal plan selection was easy…took five seconds…THAT ONE.
I do think that for a place as big as tOSU, there will be early disasters where kids don’t get their food as they figure out the demand patterns. Fortunately there is High Street, running parallel to the campus, with every possible type of eatery one can imagine. I assured him we will make sure he never goes hungry. This was a major concern of his and he will accept no room for error. Online classes he can live with. Delayed eating, no.
My oldest happened to live in the dorm where most of the football players lived his freshmen year. So he tended to eat in the same dining hall. He share stories of their consumption patterns. Those guys burn a few calories every day so they are definitely going to stress/test the dining process this summer with those guys.
But come to think of it, I think that dining will be one of the earliest and easiest fails as colleges get used to this new normal. We should all send our kids to school with a good back-up plan for food. There will be issues, for sure.
Would social distancing and capacity restrictions make lingering in the cafeteria unrealistic?
Students living on campus can be told to go quarantine elsewhere because the school is the landlord. Students living in an apartment off campus have a different landlord and different sets of rules.
When my daughter had the flu, the school sent out a notice that she was ‘excused’ from class (really was banned). She lived in a house just off campus. The school couldn’t control who went in and out of her private home. The school did not set a time for her banishment, and it really worked out for her. I think the email went out on a Tues, she slept through Wed., and Thursday school was cancelled due to a power failure. She returned to her one class (tennis) on Friday.
@cypresspat we did look at food! The places where you have to buy things ala cart get expensive fast. And S19 is the type of kid who would be concerned about how much he was spending. Wisconsin is ala cart and the food isn’t great. We ate at all schools on his list. Believe me when I say it makes a difference to know the kids can have good healthy food with lots of choice and enough of it. It really helps with the quality of life and one doesn’t have to waste time figuring out where to eat or what to cook. More time for studying.
Not sure! We will find out!
Right. But this is not the flu and if colleges are serious about no spike then they have to know for sure kids are quarantined. Some of you are sad for kids who have to live on campus but maybe the schools that are all residential have a better chance of getting through the fall with no spike. They have more control.
If they don’t allow the students on campus until they are well, not sure it will matter where they quarantine. If the student is at risk of expulsion if caught on campus, it will have the same effect. I do get how their roommates may have to also consent to testing and staying away from the student. Or the student will have to show they went home.
I don’t know it’s a wrinkle for sure.