The ever constant lunch rush continues for students.
There have been changes to the setup of the food court that have caused new issues.
Things like wait time and noise have become an increasing problem for the students who depend on dining services for their meals.
Chick-fil-A was remodeled over break and this new setup seems to function less efficiently for students who just want the menu items as they come.
Previously, Chick-fil-A offered a quick grab and go option that included sandwiches, nuggets and fries which allowed students in a hurry to grab a quick bite before classes.
It was efficient for people in a hurry, but not for people who wanted specialty items. There were complaints at the time though that some of the food was left out just a bit too long and was not as fresh as it could have been.
Now, the set up includes kiosks that are cool but do not function efficiently for the number of people that are using them.
The kiosks make it easier for people to order custom items, but not for people who just want the regular sandwich or nuggets.
The grab and go setup was perfect for breakfast because there was hardly anything to change.
Wait times and congestion in the mornings even now are nowhere near as bad as it is at lunchtime.
The lunchtime rush is what needs to be addressed.
Wait times are a big factor in congestion.
Students have reported waiting around 25 to 30 minutes to get food sometimes and even longer if it is extremely busy. Most students barely have an hour, if they are lucky, to grab lunch before their next class.
Having to gamble about whether or not you will have enough time to get food, not even to eat it is not something our students should have to stress about.
A solution needs to be made to decrease the amount of time it takes to get through the line at Chick-fil-A.
By decreasing the wait times, the number of students in the food court at any time will decrease and therefore the noise levels will also decrease.
A simple solution to benefit everyone would be to bring back the grab-and-go set up as well as having some kiosks.
Kiosks are for people who want something special, but the grab-and-go is for everyone else that is in a hurry.
This way there will only be a few people waiting a little bit longer instead of everyone waiting for a lot longer.
Something else that would decrease student wait times would be to hire a few more people to work in dining services. By increasing the number of workers, the amount of work on each individual cook will be lessened which will speed up the whole process.
The confusing setup of lines at Chick-Fil-A falls short of being orderly.
Numbers are called out of order and people ordering only drinks end up getting stuck in the congestion.
The futuristically styled kiosks offer nothing but the extended wait time for food.
On the other hand, Papa John’s pizza queue look bare and empty – hardly an employee insight to take the orders of the surrounding students. Why is that?
Another issue is the amount of noise around the dining area.
It is ridiculous during the lunchtime rush around noon on weekdays.
There are people everywhere, not just because of Chick-fil-A.
We need rules regarding noise control now that our student body is growing. Rules that prohibit shouting, music through speakers without approval and running around acting like children should be implemented in order to deal with the brain-numbing noise.
The extreme noise levels affecting students’ abilities to concentrate needs to addressed in some way as well.
Something has to change in order to decrease the chaos in the food court so that people can actually enjoy the University Food Court again.
Waiting for more than 15 minutes anywhere on campus should not be the norm because students are in a hurry. Workers of campus dining should not have the pressure placed on them by the new system and the number of students using campus dining currently.
In the end, there are many different options in order to improve the flow of the food court and the dining areas throughout the UC.
Something just needs to be decided on and done soon because it is becoming increasingly frustrating for APSU students.
APSU- you continuously boast about increasing enrollment, yet fail to accommodate your growing numbers.
If you wish to be a large, growing university it is time you start treating your students better to fix your sinking retention rate.
