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Sunday, November 23, 2003
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Things are in an uproar. The university has announced that food and drink are now forbidden in all classrooms. “It has something to do with taxes,” our departmental secretary mutters as students and faculty rush her desk in search of an explanation. Shock and denial seem the primary responses. “Well, I can still bring my latte, can’t I?” “No one can tell me I can’t eat lunch during Anthro!” “I’m not sure I can lecture at ten in the morning without sustenance...” “What next? Are they gonna take away our cell phones?”
Apparently the real problem is rats. People leave so many edibles behind in so many classrooms that the cleaning staff can’t keep up, and ravenous vermin run riot. It’s routine to see a student place soup, popcorn, yogurt, sandwich, coffee, cola, cake, napkins, straws, plates, and other accessories on his small desktop while you’re lecturing, and then to see the same student leave a tableful of uneaten food behind at the end of class. In larger lecture classes, students bring even more food to eat while watching the movie or slideshow or tv documentary which is likely to be the main focus of the class. They sit in chatty groups in the back of the hall, passing goodies out among themselves. Many students read newspapers during these sorts of classes as well, completing the transformation of the salle de conferences into a Starbucks. |