EDITORIAL: FAMILY STYLE
Consider, for a moment, family-style dinner. If we are to believe the campus tour guides, it's one of the traditions which makes Rice what it is. Food and Housing will fight food courts and cardreaders in its name.
The college commons tell a different story, though.
Where students have a choice between family- and cafeteria-style dining, they're turning increasingly to cafeteria style. Often, only a few tables remain, filled mainly with freshmen. Hanszen only serves family style three days a week. At Wiess last year, a group of freshmen refused to wait.
It seems that we are seeing the end, slowly but surely, of family-style dinner. Perhaps it's a casualty of a changing university. As its national stature improves, Rice students are getting to be more and more academically driven. Family style takes more time, even if it's only half an hour. Perhaps we don't think we have that time anymore. Perhaps it's not worth the bother of clearing up afterwards.
This is not a call to arms. It makes no sense to compel students to eat family style if they don't want to. If the day comes when family-style dinner is no longer wanted, so be it.
We should think, though, about what we are losing. At its best, family style can be the gathering of a community, a chance for people who live in the same college but may not see each other during the course of the day to talk for a few moments. It's an enforced break from problem sets and papers. With cafeteria style, the temptation is to grab food, eat quickly and leave. Besides, family style encourages socialization, and there's a lot to be said for that.
The day may come soon when the people who show up for family style don't fill a single table. It will mark the passing of an important institution. Let us remember what we're missing.
This item appeared in the Opinion section of the November 10, 1995 issue.
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