Kamryn Mengel, a first-year at Elizabethtown College, is on a meal plan, like many of her peers. The meal plan allows her to get unlimited meals at the marketplace. One day after her first-year seminar (FYS) roundtable, she decided to go eat, since she’d been busy the entire morning with classes.
She couldn’t find a single seat.
“There wasn’t even anywhere to stand up,” Mengel said. “So I just left.”
Mengel isn’t alone.
The College’s enrollment has risen for three consecutive years, placing more students on the campus and in the dining hall. While enrollment is great for the College’s fiscal status, current students aren’t pleased with the spacing on campus.
“It’s ridiculous,” second-year Makenna Mummert said. “I come in with friends and we can’t sit in one group. We have to split up and sit at different tables, sometimes by ourselves.”
Mummert said Marketplace seating impacts her social life.
“Lunch is my break,” Mummert said. “When I don’t get to sit with my friends, it’s really upsetting.”
Seating in the College’s main cafeteria is limited, and the rooms don’t have a large amount of space to place more tables.
“At this point, they need to make another building for the cafeteria,” first-year Megan Robbins said.
Robbins noted on days with popular food items, like tacos, seating isn’t the only issue. Lines are only getting longer.
“I need to go to class and I can’t wait in line for tacos for 30 minutes, but it was what I wanted to eat,” Robbins said. “I was late for class today, and I wasn’t able to focus because I was hungry.”
One solution Robbins proposed was more food options. Meal swipes can be used at certain times in the Jays Nest; however menu items in the Jays Nest don’t rotate, and students can’t get an unlimited amount of food like they can in the Marketplace, which is buffet style.
Meal swipes can also be used at the Fresh Nest for either ramen or a smoothie, but it isn’t open until after lunchtime.
One student said she had no problem finding seats.
“I purposefully go to the marketplace when other people have class,” second-year Allyia Kennedy said. “They need to rearrange it and add more tables, though.”
Last weekend, Dining Services was busy curating food for prospective students at an Open House, another concern for students. According to a campus-wide email sent on wednesday, registration for one open house was up by 18 percent.
If Etown continues admissions at the level it has the past three years, it’s only going to get harder to find seats. There are a limited number of independent living units with kitchens, and some students in independent living units still use the Marketplace.
It’s not clear if Dining Services plans to take steps to address the issue. A representative from Dining Services did not respond to a request for comment.
