It’s sad to see many students dismiss Center Court. The largest eatery on campus has faced declining numbers for years now, leaving attendance at a paltry 350 per night.
Part of the fault lies with Dining Services. At least by 2003, they recognized a emerging “grab and go” trend to eating on campus. Rather than having a sit-down meal, students were taking their food back to their dorms, or wolfing down a bite at Bear’s Den. Their response to this trend-remodel dining areas to make them more attractive-backfired in Center Court’s case. Yes, Bear’s Den now has plenty of seating, and that’s a plus, but it doesn’t have nearly the capacity of Center Court, and the food served there doesn’t promote relaxed dining. Students just grab their grub and go more than ever.
Communal meals are important, plain and simple. They foster socializing, not TV watching; they make students take an hour break from study, not struggle to keep from dripping grease on the problem set due tomorrow. Center Court meals in particular, until a few years ago at least, were instrumental to floor unity; where else could you seat 30 people?
Also, the variety of food Center Court offers promotes balanced and healthy diets. Since students don’t pay by item, they have no disincentive to grab a banana or a salad. Quick meals, by contrast, are composed of only a few items, often snacks and unhealthy morsels.
Incentives may be just what students need to start dining at the Court again. Current seniors will remember flexes on the meal plan, each good for one Center Court meal or five points. With a Center Court meal costing far more than five points, and a Center Court meal being better than what you could get for five points at Bear’s Den, going to Center Court was easy.
In the interest of promoting Center Court, then, Dining Services should reintroduce flexes to the meal plan. Doing so would create an economic incentive to eat there. Yes, this will complicate the meal plan slightly, because students will have to keep track of their flexes as well as points, but prior classes didn’t have any major problems.
RAs can also be part of the solution by encouraging floor dinners at Center Court. Some seniors remember crazy, fun dinners where the whole floor, including the RAs, bonded over too many chocolate muffins, fro-yo and onion rings (after the balanced meal, of course!). That was before Center Court had salmon, shrimp or sirloin-the food was really an excuse to be with your floor friends.
Blind adherence to tradition is indeed a sign that one has nothing better to think about. But some traditions-like Center Court dinner-have survived as traditions because they have value. With no alternate socializing plan on the horizon, Center Court deserves to be preserved.