The College Student: Nature's entitlement Whore.

[John Nemo]

I Should paraphrase this before starting: i really do enjoy my job mostly, i like most of the people i work with, most of management and the kitchen love me, and it most diffenently pays better than my last job.


that said, however.....

I LOATHE these kids.

here are just a few examples of why:

we have a standing policy at dinner, you cant bring in your book bags as we cant afford people taking extra food. so we have them leave them out by our cashier. now, there are cubbies for them to put stuff in, but apparently this wasent good enough for one kid. he brought his computer in with him, got pissy that he could'nt bring it and the giant expensive bag it was contained in in with him. our supervisior wanted to be nice and let him leave it in the office while he was eating.

the little bastard then goes to eat and rushes back to the office, then has the temerity to whine and complain that his computer wasent completely safe.

i submit the following question: if you knew of the policy, which has been around since october, wouldnt it make more sense then to simply walk two minutes back to your dorm room, leave it there, THEN go for dinner?

but it gets better. the little shit wrote the affair up in the Collegian, the local organ of post high school useless drivel, and instead of simply writing the affair up as simply as possible, he proceeds to take several potshots at us, knowing that we cant fire back.

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last monday night we apparently had an interesting event. we close for dinner at 7:05, Sharpish. you still need to swipe your card, though. apparently, this simple motion was to hard for a large group of kids, who came in at 7:20, and demanded to load themselves up without using their card. basicly, they wanted their dinner for free. supervisor argues with them, they storm out.

i dont know about any of you, but if they want dinner, they should have to pay for it like everyone else.

there are more, but these are the latest.

[myswtghst]

It's always fun to watch the spoiled college kids learn that the cafeteria doesn't work like mommy's kitchen.

And I understand the no-bag rule, as in my dorm, it was like a competitive sport to see how much stuff you could sneak out. I had a roomie who brought in ziploc bags to take stuff, a floormate who walked out with an entire box of cereal, and some dormmates who stole actual trays to sled on. Oh, and my cousin (who goes to my alma mater) now has several sets of cafe silverware, some juice glasses, and a chair from the building study lounge in her dorm room. I scold her, though I can't help but laugh.

[John Nemo]

i once watched them try to steal a giant pumpkin. i have no idea why.


for those interested, heres the article in question. the names have been changed to protect my bank account:

BA should protect the cubbies that they force us to use

A few days ago, I walked into the front office of G after dinner, where a BA employee was working, picked up a backpack, briefly looked through it (a laptop and a graphing calculator were the big prizes), swung it onto my shoulder, and walked out the door. Neither the employee, nor anyone else, even attempted to stop me.

To clarify, I’m not actually a thief; the bag I picked up was mine. I’d opened it to make sure that everything was still there (as a little test of the BA employees). I’d made the mistake of carrying my backpack with me to dinner, where an employee told me I needed to leave it in a cubby.

When I protested, not wanting want to leave my backpack unattended, she said I could leave it in the office. I figured the office was better than nothing and left it there unattended. I rushed back to rescue my belongings from the careless clutches of BA.

As many of you are aware, BA does not allow people to bring bags into the food hall during all-you-can-eat meals to prevent students from walking off with extra food – the horror of horrors that such a crime is. As most Collegian readers are also aware, the Campus Safety Report has at least one incident regarding belongings stolen from the G cubbies and office. It is obvious to me that BA values every nickel and dime saved on food over W students’ far more valuable possessions. While I can respect that BA is simply trying to make a profit (leaving questions about their pricing alone for now), it is grossly inappropriate to forbid bags in the food hall if they cannot provide a safe place for students to leave them.

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i love the not so subtle intimation that we might steal this person's stuff.

[Finduilas]

Accusing you of stealing his stuff was idiotic; accusing people in general of being capable of doing so was not. It's too bad he didn't use that line, or maybe something would have been actually done in order to protect his pwecious TI-83. (Locking cubbies, etc.)
My exboyfriend made that exact same mistake at his school... brought his backpack for dinner, where they made him leave it at the door. It was stolen, and inside was a textbook he had to rebuy, his glasses, and a notebook full of music and lyrics that he had been writing in for several years.

[chainedbarista]

too bad you cannot write a rebuff to that idiocy; a policy is a policy and that's that.

don't like it, little man? you can always LEAVE.

wonder what type of argument he uses when the police pull him over for a traffic violation.

[rerant]

Ok, that article was not only poorly written but foolish. However, I do agree with this person's point, but at the same time understand the college's side of things.
Rules may be rules, but a cubby is not a safe place for bags that undoubtedly contain hundreds of dollars worth of property (text books are not cheap, remember).
The student is also right in that anyone can walk away with anything, whether or not it's theirs.
Sure there may be someone watching the belongings, but is there any system in place to ensure that the person who is picking up the bag actually owns it?
Maybe something in the same vain as a coatcheck would ease the student's minds. I know I would feel a little better about it at least.

While it may not be the college's responsibility to watch someone's personal items, they have already in a sense taken responsibility for it by offering the cubby system, and I think if they're going to allow students to leave their items there (which they do) they should have to ensure some kind of safety for those items.

Just my college kid two cents.

[chainedbarista]

i also agree to a point, but he also has the option to hump his lazy ass back to the dorm to secure it in his room.

he chose not to, so he wins no sympathy points.

(it's the heartless bastard in me speaking)

[Apathy]

I agree with the anti-college student side.

Sure, it's unsafe. That's what I thought when I was in college. But you know what? You don't have to eat there, and you, by no means, have to bring your stuff with you and put it there. Go to McDonald's if you've got such a problem with it, rather than whining about it.

[HawaiianShirts]

A few days ago, I walked into the front office of G after dinner, where a BA employee was working, picked up a backpack, briefly looked through it (a laptop and a graphing calculator were the big prizes), swung it onto my shoulder, and walked out the door. Neither the employee, nor anyone else, even attempted to stop me.

Translation: Hey everybody who reads this college newspaper! It's a free-for-all! Go steal stuff! You won't get caught!

I can almost see riot potential here.

[AdminAssistant]

Okay, the kid's reaction was sucky. BUT I don't understand why they won't allow bags in the cafeteria. My undergrad always let us carry in our stuff, and I'd study while I ate.

So the EW student was an SC, but that policy doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, a few students may swipe some silverware or a glass or two. But that's a lot better than a bunch of students having their possessions stolen. If the cafeteria won't allow bags, then a secure location for belongings should be provided. It could be that a student only has 30-45 min. between classes and doesn't have time to go to their dorm room to drop off their stuff.

What I could never understand about my undergrad cafeteria is why they wouldn't let us fix up a lunch/dinner and take it with us.

[Dreamstalker]

What I could never understand about my undergrad cafeteria is why they wouldn't let us fix up a lunch/dinner and take it with us.

I didn't get that either....my evening classes started at 6. Class on the opposite side of campus from my computer class ended at 5:30 (most of the time it ran late as the instructor was perpetually disorganized). Both buildings were as far away as possible from my dorm, so most nights I barely had enough time to run back to my room, change books and run out again. The cafeteria (which opened at 5:45) didn't let students get food to go...well, they did, but you had to call ahead (why, I knew not). I would think that proof of a tight schedule would be enough to let one get a small to-go box....we're still paying for the meal.

[anyanka2]

The EW college kid was a SC, but he does have a somewhat valid point. College students have a lot of things in their bags, including some items that are valuable, i.e. textbooks and computers. It doesn't make sense for most students to leave their bags in an exposed and open area.

Based upon my experiences at my alma mater, the dining hall food and service was a massive ripoff. The food itself wasn't that great, despite University Housing raising the food fees every year. You would think that that money would go into better tasting and quality food, but it was the same old crap year after year. Housing made little or no effort to improve nutritional quality or offer more options for people with alternative diets. My campus had the option of ala carte/take out, but those options were separate from the regular dining halls.

The service was not much better. Some food was left out under the lights for the entire shift and getting the salad bar was dangerous - you never knew how long the ingredients had been left out. Some dining halls had better service than others - it depended on the time of day.

[Argabarga]

i also agree to a point, but he also has the option to hump his lazy ass back to the dorm to secure it in his room.

he chose not to, so he wins no sympathy points.

(it's the heartless bastard in me speaking)

Well, that's my feeling on it too. The moment you leave anything you own unattended and unsecured, you assume all risk for it. If there wasn't a secure place for it there, it shouldn't have been left there, and nobody put a gun to thier head and told them to drop it outside.

[Dreamstalker]

What I think would be great is an option at enrollment for students to put money on a grocery store gift card either in addition to or in place of dining hall fees (that, or work with local grocery stores where the cash portion of a student ID could be used at the store). For some reason I get the feeling that in reality this would never fly...

I was lucky in that the learning-center receptionist made the best tamales ever and would let students/staff in the learning center place orders.

[lightmylamb]

I don't get why he thought it was so easy to go through his own stuff. How does he know that the staff didn't know it was his? If that makes any sense...