To the Editor:

Heaven forbid the administration should allow students here at the U of C to be happy. The proposed new regulations on meal points to limit dining at Bartlett seem both heavy-handed and unnecessary, designed without the best interests or preferences of students in mind. While many people eat dinner at Bartlett rather than their home dining hall, accounts of “overcrowding” are exaggerated. In my experience there have recently been plenty of open tables and reasonably short lines; the long Bartlett dinner period helps to spread out traffic. The claim has been made that “the most positive part of any dining experience is eating with the members of your house,” but students seem to think otherwise, and the evidence of that is in their actions. And since most people still eat lunch at their house table, I would disagree with the assertion that house community is being ruined. Rather than asserting dictatorial control over our dining habits, I suggest a better solution to balance the traffic at the three dining halls: if the University wants us to eat at Burton-Judson and Pierce, it should make the food at them worth eating.

Lauren Beitler

Class of 2005, Bishop House resident