3 questions related to UG dorms and such

jessiehl
Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:31:42 +0000

Lol, why is the student body against dorms with their own dining? I don’t really understand what is infuriating about that…



The food is mediocre and overpriced, and more importantly, it’s an unnecessary, restrictive thing. MIT students tend to distrust mandatory anything, and being part of Preferred Dining is mandatory if you live in a dorm with a dining hall. It’s a misguided attempt by admins to impose “community” from the top down, when students are perfectly good at forming REAL communities themselves. Now, some people might WANT to be in Preferred Dining, and that’s fine, but you can be in Preferred Dining without living in a dorm that requires it.

Also, if you’re an FSILG frosh, it screws you over…most FSILGs have their own meal plans, that often ARE part of their real, homegrown community (as kitchen cooking is at other living groups, like much of Random Hall), and frosh in the relevant dorms are required to buy into both their FSILG’s meal plan AND Preferred Dining.

W1 (not Ashdown, that was its grad dorm name and is going to be the name of the new grad dorm) had perfectly good kitchens when it was a grad dorm. Against the advice of the actual students on the committee/advisory group, when they turn it into an undergrad dorm they are going to rip out those kitchens and give it a dining hall instead. Such a waste.