While there have been a few incremental improvements, the overall dining experience on the South 40 has gone significantly downhill this year. As someone who considered the late night Bear’s Den run to be a major part of my social life, this is very disappointing. Bear’s Den, Bear Mart and Center Court no longer exist, and they have been replaced with two dining facilities in the new South 40 House or “SoFoHo,” one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs facility, a smaller version of Bear Mart, has an international station and is the location for the weekend brunches that used to occur at Center Court. The downstairs area has a grill, sandwich station, bakery and fryer.

With full knowledge that the dining facilities in operation this year are to some degree temporary, there are some minor and more serious flaws with the new eateries. The most serious flaw is the physical layout of the downstairs eating area. While there are several distinct stations—each serving different types of food—there’s only one area roped off for the lines. The result is chaos. The lines are confusing, and it is not hard to wait in line for quite a while only to realize that you were in line for the wrong station. A half-hour or longer wait for a burger is common during popular dining times. Many upperclassmen I know have given up trying to eat on the 40 and taken to driving off campus for dinner or making the long trek to places like the Village or the DUC.

Another serious problem with the new options is lack of late night dining. Yes, the downstairs facility is open late, and it has the same hours that Bear’s Den used to have, but the atmosphere and variety of food available could not be more different. Late night Bear’s Den was a way of life for me as a freshman, but now the experience simply does not exist. This brings me to the title of my article: Where are the Bosco sticks?

Bosco sticks were popular, inexpensive and delicious, and yet along with Bear’s Den, they are conspicuously absent this year. In addition to the disappearance of the Bosco sticks, the wildly popular buffalo fries are gone, as were, for a while, the mozzarella sticks that were a staple at 2:45 a.m. on a Saturday. All three of these items are incredibly easy to make; the latter two are cooked in the deep fryer that is already in place in the new facility. Why would Bon Appétit get rid of these huge sellers?

While Bear’s Den was buzzing and alive at 2 a.m., “Bear World” is not. Some friends have commented to me that it feels like a basement, and I have simply replied that it is, in fact, a basement with no windows and very limited seating. Sadly, instead of being a social venue at which to end our nights, Bear World is just an eatery—and a poor one at that.

I am hopeful that these problems will be corrected as the new facilities become one and reach their fully finished state. Can the company that got rid of Bosco Sticks really be trusted to replicate the glory that was Bear’s Den? If I had to guess, I would say no. Nevertheless, I, along with many other students, will hold out hope.