Graduation feels like it was yesterday so I couldn’t believe my eyes when I received an e-mail from my alma mater’s class reporter. For the first time, the class reporter wasn’t requesting class donations (thank goodness – nothing makes me more irritated than being asked to donate a couple hundred bucks when I have a couple thousand bucks worth of student loans to think about). Instead, she was asking for the class of 2010’s first official alumnae updates for the next alumnae magazine!

Updates? UPDATES? We have been out of school for, what, a hot second and you want updates? About JOBS AND MARRIAGES?! Do people even get jobs married straight of college anymore? Seriously. It’s been 6 freaking months!

After going through the e-mail (and breathing into a brown paper bag), I couldn’t help but think of the classic 1997 girl-comedy, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. Although the girls attend their 10 year high school reunion (not just send in an update), they go to any means necessary to appear fabulous and accomplished – even making up a story about inventing Post-Its. While Romy and Michelle didn’t have too much to show after ten years out of high school, they were determined to appear like they have made something of themselves – even though the majority of their classmates were just like them and had nothing to report back either. Read More »

Nearly every first year student worries about putting on the dreaded “freshman fifteen” upon entering college, which makes the dining hall and food options offered by a university a major focal point of conversation among its student body. While most colleges across the nation have a variety of options in their dining hall and the students are satisfied, a lot of colleges simply suck in the food programs they provide for their students. However, while those programs may not be ideal for the student body, administrations often work with students to get insight into creating better menus, offering more variety, and improving overall healthiness of the food.

My university is not one of those schools that eagerly works to improve the situation in the dining hall, even though it is overwhelmingly a huge issue on campus.

From day one, I have heard nothing but complaints from my peers, and even my professors – and now, two and a half years later, complaints and concerns of the dining program (created by Sodexho – a program which works with many schools across the nation) still circulate on a day-to-day basis.

As a campus, Hollins students are indisputably guilty for interminable complaining about the issues with Sodexho as a program and the administration taking responsibility (or lack thereof) for student concerns over food issues, but I don’t blame anyone for their incessant pressure on trying to improve the situation. Hollins doesn’t offer a varying meal plan; its unlimited access to the dining hall from breakfast until the cafeteria closes at 7pm binds students to the meal-plan, making getting off the meal plan nearly impossible. Read More »