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The Case for Friday and Saturday Snack
The end of Sunday snack is a tragedy that I am still mourning. Snack is a beloved institution at CMC and we are lucky to have it. To improve this excellent tradition, I advocate making snack a regular event on Friday and Saturday night. Let me explain why this a priority for CMC.
Instituting snack on Friday and Saturday is important because it would help reduce the severity and number of alcohol-related incidents. Thursday night snack already confers many of these benefits due to the popularity of TNC, which is why snack should be extended to the other two big drinking nights on campus. Eating food, especially high protein foods, slows the absorption of alcohol into the body and thereby reduces the likelihood of people becoming intoxicated beyond their limit. Drinking non-alcoholic liquids, particularly water or sports drinks, is an effective method to prevent hangovers.
Additionally, the institution of snack may slightly slow the rate of alcohol consumption, which can help prevent alcohol poisoning. Certainly, people determined to continue drinking will sneak in alcohol or avoid snack altogether. Nonetheless, many people interested in food, will avoid the hassle of smuggling in alcohol and stop drinking for at least the duration of their time in the dining hall. Having snack on Friday/Saturday may also possibly reduce the frequency of drunk driving. Yes, drunk people can currently always go to the Hub, Coop, or Mudd Hole instead of driving, but another option would make drunk driving in search of food even less rational, particularly when snack is “free.” For the more sober-minded, snack on Friday and Saturday would provide another social opportunity for people who want to socialize at an event not dominated by the mutual consumption of alcohol (yes, these people do exist on campus).
Even if you think the public health benefits of Friday/Saturday snack are overstated, at the very least, people who are drinking would greatly appreciate convenient, “free” food and drinks. In my experience, most believe the marginal utility of food increases when they have been drinking. Similarly, the consumption of marijuana, another popular activity for CMCers on the weekend, is known to stimulate one’s hunger.[i] Furthermore, Gatorade and soda can serve as excellent mixers or chasers. The priorities of drunk and stoned CMCers rightfully do not usually factor into discussions about campus policy, but it might seems reasonable to include those priorities when making snack policy.
I realize there may be some practical considerations against this proposal and I want to address a few of them here. I can understand that many food service employees would not want to spend their Friday and Saturday nights working at snack, but perhaps overtime pay would entice them. Maybe budget cuts make fewer snack nights a necessity. If so, Friday and Saturday snack could replace Monday and Tuesday snack. I can understand Bon Appetit being reluctant to let hordes of drunk CMCers into the dining hall on a weekend night and possibly messing up the place, but experience proves this concern is not warranted: Thursday night snack and TNC have coexisted peacefully.
[i] THC triggers the CB1 receptor in the brain. The CB1 receptor is responsible for stimulating hunger.
More posts by Charlie »
Charlie Sprague
I love to debate, but I hate it when people take arguments about their politics personally. I love to travel for free. It's one of the best things I've gotten from my CMC education. Sunday is often the most frustrating day of my week (I'm a 49ers fan).
11 Comments
2009-10-03
01:36:24
Compared to what? To pay for snack, the school must make budget cuts elsewhere, when we're already facing a multi-million dollar deficit, or raise tuition. Adding Friday and Saturday snack would cost the school about $60,000. That's more than most CMC staff members make in a year.
I think CMC has bettter priorities than satiating high students, like keeping as many staff on the payroll as possible, keeping the school affordable for students that aren't wealthy and keeping overall tuition low.
If students can afford marijuana they can afford their own munchies, and if you can't anticipate being hungry after smoking then, that's really too bad. The alcohol argument is more substantive, but I doubt that the benefits outweigh the cost. How much of spending on snack would simply replace student spending on drunchies/munchies (in a less efficient manner?)
Without any consideration of the tradeoffs involved this feels like more of a daydream than a solid opinion piece.
2009-10-03
17:50:15
Yet another example of why Charlie Sprague is out of touch, wrong, and not a thinker.
Well done, Kevin.
How about the fact that a majority of students on campus aren't 21?
And that pot is illegal? Why should the school subsidize it through cheaper food?
2009-10-03
14:21:25
This could officially be deemed the most idiotic article I have ever read, and that's saying alot seeing some of the articles on the forum.
To use the fact that people are drunk or high as a factor of CMC's policies when it comes to regulating snack....
Basically Kevin Burke's argument is win.
CMC has better priorities. The drinkers or druggies who can't live without Friday or Saturday snack, get over yourselves.
2009-10-03
14:54:30
Kevin Burke, FTW.
2009-10-03
19:08:20
Can I just point out that this article made Andrew Bluebond AND Charles Johnson agree on something...
I think that is pretty cute.
2009-10-04
06:06:26
I think this article is in a few ways misguided. I happen to agree that students need not be forced to foot the bill and pay for a snack on Friday and Saturday nights.
BUT:
I honestly wouldn't mind extended hours for the shop that's attatched to the Hub. Honestly, the line at the hub can get quite rediculous. I saw a number of people get turned away because there wasn't time to reach them. The Hub isn't meant to take that much of a load of people.
The Mudd hole is a a lot more reasonable time wise, but that's a really long way to go. (Well not really, but it certainly seems that way when cold or intoxicated.) It can get pretty hectic down there too.
If we kept the little side-store open, I'm pretty sure it'd get a good amount of traffic and pay for itself.
2009-10-04
18:16:20
Clearly not much room for humor on the Forum anymore. In case the lighthearted, somewhat sarcastic tone was not obvious, let me just say that I don't actually think extending snack "is a priority for CMC". Nor is this statement literally true: "The end of Sunday snack is a tragedy that I am still mourning"
2009-10-04
19:31:28
Sorry, but given the ridiculousness of some of the other things you've argued, like that euthanasia is economically good, etc., it's tough to know when you're kidding.
2009-10-04
22:20:07
Oops. I assumed the links you posted were to academic papers, implying that you were serious. I just clicked them and they were for Urbandictionary. Sorry Charlie.
2009-10-05
16:06:54
a modest proposal, indeed.
2009-11-04
09:08:10
[...] very serious about this idea. There are no good justifications for having Fall [...]