by Ethan Juhasz
Throughout my first few weeks at the College of Wooster, one constant found among the students of the College seems to be a consistent dislike —and even hatred— of the food at Lowry. But I think that we, as a community of students, should stop complaining about the food at Lowry so much. Instead, we should step back and look at perhaps why everyone constantly complains about it and look towards a real solution as opposed to just using Lowry as a communal punching bag.
First, it’s important to look at why the food may be considered bad. It’s important to think about how Lowry is serving a large community of students, faculty and staff with very diverse tastes and needs. So, the students raising the complaint that the food doesn’t have enough spice or flavor (complaints I’ve heard firsthand in Lowry) ought to maybe consider that the College has to produce food that can be eaten by more than 2000 people.
When that is taken into perspective, the fact that we have stations like Lemongrass and Kitchen Table offering dishes like Tikki Masala and General Tso’s chicken is actually pretty great. And regardless, areas such as the panini bar and the cereal area offer a constant alternative option if nothing Lowry is offering on a particular day interests you.
Another thing I’ve really noticed about the complaints in regards to Lowry is that beyond passive complaints and general disdain for the dining options, not much seems to be actually done about these complaints. Part of this is because there’s almost become a culture in the College of hating on Lowry, so much so that even when Lowry isn’t actually making bad food, people hate it anyways.
This ‘culture of discontent’ seems to have perpetuated upperclassmen culture, and many first years are noticing. Tim Book ’27, a fellow first year, offers another perspective as a new student – “A lot of the hate is ironic… [the hate] is more so for the ‘bit’ – for the cultural opinion or joke that Lowry food is the worst. I don’t think it’s actually all that bad… I’ve always been able to find something, but I think it’s kind of funny to hate on Lowry.”
This ‘culture of discontent’ further explains why even though students are constantly complaining about Lowry, nothing much gets done about it. It’s because the majority of students are content with just complaining about Lowry to each other rather than raising legitimate complaints with Campus Dining.
Now, this isn’t to say that Campus Dining is perfect – there are always improvements to be made and legitimate student feedback is important. Marjorie Shamp, Director of Campus Dining, said during a tour, “The most annoying thing is when students have a problem with dining and they complain about it to everyone except me.” But perhaps any of the student body’s reasonable complaints could be directed to the people who can actually fix the problem, rather than just towards Lowry as a whole.
Ultimately, this isn’t to say that students are all unfairly complaining. Reasonable criticism is very important, and a culture where we as a student body feel comfortable enough to critique the environment made for us is undoubtedly a good thing. But maybe next time you want to complain about something in Lowry, just think about why you might be complaining, and just be a little more considerate about Lowry. I think that’ll help our campus be a much healthier and more positive place for everyone.
