The Call on D-hall

For all students and faculty that returned at the beginning of this year, the biggest change on campus became immediately clear: Elm Street dining hall. What used to be a comfortable, old and somewhat smelly building became a sparkling, chic dining area for the Exeter community. Because of the extensive renovation completed this summer, Elm now boasts a new soup bar, an impressive brick pizza oven and a redesigned queue system to minimize congestion and enhance the dining experience.What could be bad about that, one might ask? The answer: everything. Not only has the new design created a confused mob in the center of the dining hall for each and every meal, but several options from the old D-Hall are not even available anymore. Furthermore, the food options have barely changed, which has made me and numerous other Exonians question why so much money was spent on an unnecessary renovation when it could have been spent on improving the food.In previous years, overcrowding in Elm Street was indeed a problem. When the two lines became long enough, it became an intricate puzzle to cross from side to side without knocking classmates over. Yet, all hot lines, buffets and drink machines were set spaciously apart to allow easy flow between them. In that sense, there were distinct areas for pasta, salad, sandwiches, cereal, drinks and all the hot foods. If one day I wanted pasta, I would not have to wait in the lengthy line for cheeseburgers, nor would I have to bother bumping into those who preferred cereal. Now that we have our renovation, all food areas that were previously scattered have been crammed into the central space of D-Hall. As a result, if I had that same particular craving for some penne with meat sauce, I would have to endure the hotline wait and even bump shoulders with those making paninis, tossing salads and dispensing cereal. I shudder to think what would happen if I needed some sort of beverage, for that requires weaving around the winding hot food line and walking to the cramped cranny in which Exonians wrestle for a spot at the drink machine. How is that for efficiency?What adds further to the unproductiveness of the new Elm Street dining hall is that some food options have actually been reduced. Now the pasta bar is featured on both ends of the hotline with a tray for each meat sauce, tomato sauce and pasta, which is minimal compared to last year’s spread. Likewise, instead of the two distinct hotlines that used to grace the hall, now it is one, perplexing buffet that spans across the whole service area. When rush hour arrives, students hurry in from both ends, which would be perfectly reasonable, except that there are consistently options on one end of the line that are not on the other. This produces an enormous clash of students moving every which way.At least, you may say, we can always fall back on the deliciously homemade peanut butter or the big salad bowls that allow for a large, healthy meal. However, those options too have disappeared with the old dining hall we never knew we loved so much.I admit, one of the added benefits of the refurbished D-Hall is the so-called "hearth," which is a brick oven in the center of the building. This installation provides a new range of options that can spice up our dining experience, which never hurt anybody. As of now, however, it seems Exeter has primarily utilized this fantastic cooking appliance for one food item: pizza. Whatever type of pizza—pepperoni, peppers and onions, cheese or even buffalo chicken—they will serve it for lunch using the revolutionary "hearth." I understand; we are hardworking, hungry teenagers and accordingly it makes sense that we can indulge for some meals and enjoy a cheesy slice of pizza. But by serving pizza almost every single day for lunch, Elm Street dining hall is creating a whole new definition of "indulging." This daily pizza supplying habit is a punch to the face for anyone trying to live a remotely healthy life, and for those who are not, eating pizza every day is still not the best idea. Yes, they occasionally will toss up other dishes from the hearth, like pork chops or chicken parmesan, but I will not consider the brick oven beneficial until it yields regular meals that are not pizza.This transformation of the dining hall is obviously not the end of the world. We should all be grateful that Exeter has the means to undertake such a change, and at the minimum the dining hall still offers a sound variety of healthy options. Until improvements are made upon the current functionings and offerings at D-Hall, many in the Exeter community will be forced to conclude that we may have been better off without the renovation.