I feel like such a complainer every semester when it comes to Dining Services, and I feel bad. Complaining is not good, so I wish there could be one semester where I was pretty close to being really satisfied with the food service here … but right now is not that moment.

Sometimes I am the only one to blame for the reasons I complain. For example, first semester freshman year I had the 17-meal plan, and I never, ever got close to eating that many meals. So I had to figure out how many meals I needed. However, when I came to a decision, Dining Services added Dining Dollars and changed the whole system, so I complained because I had to refigure out which plan to get, and of course, it took a couple semesters until I was satisfied.

Then to my disappointment, Lawson Hall no longer served Mexican food every day and Pemberton Hall was closed, and not only on weekends, which now meant no omelettes after church and no Reservation Only.

The addition of Subway to our makeshift food court while we waited for the new Food Court made me happy even despite the long lines that are to be expected. I also liked the installation of Dining Dollars after I figured out how to balance the amount of dollars with the number of meals.

My problem now is I have five meals a week and 200 Dining Dollars for the semester and no place where I want to spend my Dining Dollars because the Food Court is not done and the restaurants are closed until the project is finished.

As they have in the past, the dining halls accept Dining Dollars, but the reason I only have five meals and a lot of Dining Dollars is because I don’t want to go to the dining centers that often; the food court was a lot more convenient for me.

Administrators think Stevenson’s deli line is the closest alternative to Subway, which, yeah, it is the closest, but it’s no substitute. I like Stevenson’s deli sandwiches, but a person can only have so many, and they’re nowhere near the quality of Subway.

Plus, who needs to use Dining Dollars at a residence hall dining center that they can eat at all day with a meal swipe? It’s also more expensive to use Dining Dollars in a residence hall than it is in the food court.

I know with all of its changes Dining Services is only doing its best and trying to experiment with different services just like I changed my meal plan multiple times to figure out which one worked for me. I don’t believe the people working in dining are purposely trying to make me upset and cheat the students from what they like.

I also know the equipment has to be moved, so for some time, the restaurants would have to be closed. I’m not an expert in how long it takes to move the equipment, so maybe a month isn’t unreasonable, but it’s hard not to admit the whole deal is a big inconvenience to students with Dining Dollars.

Better planning should have taken place. That way everyone would be certain everything would be done, and the move could have been made during the winter break. That’s what was in the best interests of students.

The administration has “plans” to open the Food Court sometime this month, but we all know how those plans can change. Wasn’t Booth Library supposed to be open already? Wasn’t the Food Court really supposed to be done at least a year ago? And how about that steam tunnel project that took longer than planned?

I feel like I have no choice but to be cynical about this project and be upset that I’ll have to spend my Dining Dollars elsewhere for the time being if I want to eat. I also find it hard to believe the Food Court will open this month, but if I could be proved wrong, that’d be great. I won’t complain about that.