It can be disappointing when break is over and students must return to campus. Many students, however, are arriving weeks prior to the standard arrival time. This includes international students, student athletes and student employees of the school, such as those who work for Resident Life and Housing. These students sacrifice a week or more of their break to come back early. When they arrive, many have to walk a half mile or more across campus to eat.

It is understandable that not all of the dining halls will be open when there are so few students on campus. Due to poor communication, however, students on campus can be left frustrated and without an explanation for why the only dining hall open is the most invconvenient.

Lakeside Dining is the newest and the nicest dining hall on campus, but Lakeside residence halls hold the least amount of Resident Assistants and tend to house fewer athletes. So why was Lakeside chosen to remain open? There are far more resident assistants on West Campus, where dorms average 15 or more to a staff. Compare that to East Campus which averages seven RAs per staff. This does not consider the number of athletes who are back at school for practices, many of whom live on West Campus.

It simply does not make sense to have the majority of students back on campus walk across the snow and cold. Many students opt to drive rather than walk to eat, which causes a host of new issues. For instance, at the beginning of RA winter training, parking spaces are not plowed. This can lead to a lot of cars parking illegally in what could be dangerous areas given the road conditions. Or they get stuck in the parking lots they could find.

An inconvenience can turn into an unnecessarily tense issue when there is improper communication. A quick conversation with Ruth Stevens of Resident Dinning explained the reasoning for why Lakeside was chosen. For accessibility, it had to be a dining hall with an outdoor entrance. Also, winter is used as a break for Cooper employees who work more hours due to Coopers hours during summer.

It can be annoying and inconvenient to go across campus three or more times a day for meals. The situation is much better when students are given an explanation. People are more likely to be understanding when they are aware of the situation, rather than left frustrated by their own conclusions.