Man, you're lucky but unlucky at the same time. You have a gazillion more food choices than my generation ever did at UD; however, the alcohol puritans have taken over. The now-extinct north campus "Amber Lantern" was a club/bar that was HQ'd inside Pencader dining hall. Sounds weird now, eh? It was extremely popular among north campus [over-21] students. But with the big "crack down" on alcohol, such a place "sent the wrong message," I suppose.
Wow. I had no idea such a place existed. Newark has more alcohol codes/laws than the US has missile silos.
It's amazing how many government parallels can be drawn using that analogy.
I have a very good relationship with one of the main supervisors over @ Russel Dining Hall. When I first met her I was astounded when she pulled a notepad out of nowhere and started taking down notes on everything I had to say about the dining hall. Instead of the digusting terryakki glaze on the salmon, I recommended a berry glaze instead. I also professed my love for San Francisco chicken. It depends on who you talk to I guess.
I don't blame the supervisors, I blame the upper management...Kent is closed on the weekends for dinner because they think that central kids all go home on the weekends.
DT - Besides government parallels, you can also make the case that this shows what happens when you have unregulated monopolies too. UD is a business, out to make money. This is particularly true in the dining services dept. (and the bookstore). Instead of the "government is bad" analogy, have you considered the "business will do anything to make money" analogy, which in turn justifies a role for government in the economy?
Monopolies are bad-- they create market inefficiencies. However...the bookstore comparison does not stand, because of the Delaware Book Exchange and Lieberman's. This creates a fee-er market, and allows prices to fall, because it forces the UD bookstore to be competative in order for the bookstore to make a profit.
Sorry - I didn't mean to link the Bookstore with monopolies, only as an example of UD working as a business first and an educational institution second.
Good catch on that one. With the internet, there is a rather free market as far as books go. Amazing how prices stay up, really, especially on used books.
Is the fault the University's or whoever provides the dining hall service. (ARA, maybe? I think that's who it was back in my day.) They're (most likely) working on a fixed price contract, so they are trying to keep their costs down as low as possible. Now you can argue that UD shouldn't have set up the monopoly on the dining hall to begin with, but I think that's unrealistic. It's a hassle to have to deal with a lot of vendors.
Do they still have the all-points plan? If so, go to that. You can still eat in the dining hall by using points and get the all you can eat but they're usable at any facility. In general, go with the option that gives the fewest meals and therefore the most points, which provides for greatest flexibility.
No, don't do that - its the greatest rip off of them all. UD accidently gave me all points one semester and no meals - and guess what my $1,000 + meal plan translated into as far as points? 352. And in the markets and student centers, one point = one dollar, and the prices in the markets are incredibly marked up from real markets. You get double-screwed that way. If you have tog get a meal plan, my advice is to suck it up and eat as much d-hall food as possible. I lived in the towers and got the block meal plan, which was a nice alternative. They give you more options if you are willing to live that far away from campus.
Oh yes, I am trying to get the most food out of my meal plan by eating as much dining hall slop as I can.
Of course, operating under that theory sophomore year added 15 lbs. and 2 inches to my waist....oh well, I guess you just can't win. lol.
Yeah, time to make use of the University's free gym. lol
Just have to comment on the cost of textbooks. I used to work as a nanny for this uber-liberal...well, actually socialist...woman who is a professor at Georgetown. 99.9% of the time I had to hear her complain about the cost of EVERYTHING and how the government should set prices and give everyone everthing. Then, one day, I complained to her about how much textbooks are. I am not sure why because I graduated long ago. She got so angry and piped up, "Because it takes so much work for us to write them. You're actually paying very little of what they're worth!" She had just written a book, so I think she was just ticked off, but keep that in mind the next time you pay $50 for a 25-page guide to the digestive tract or whatever. These people think their words are worth their weight in gold and demand it.
FYI, the University of Delaware bookstore is operated by Barnes and Noble, who lease the space from UD.
Let me know if you all want to have a serious discussion with an insider about the economics of textbooks.
I know the general book section is, but does that include the textbooks?
Especially the textbooks, Ryan.
Jess -- that's hilarious! I can just picture that, too.
Hell, my daughter accompanied me one time to the UD bookstore to get some texts for a masters class, and she said very loud upon seeing the price "YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING!!" Everyone turned around and started laughing. 
That image, Hube, is priceless.
Jess-
and to think, I give my words away for free!
Ryan- Yes, but you're not a liberal, therefore, you don't assign an automatic value to your words on the basis that they're "important" b/c they're your words.
This explains why The New York Times' editorials are paid-subscription only.
And the only people who would pay to read them are the people who write them!
ZING!
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