Last year the George-Anne’s current Editor-in-Chief, Jozsef Papp, wrote an article discussing how students deserve more dining options. When I first read his article I remember rolling my eyes and thinking “We have a Chick-fil-A, sandwich shop and gas stations that serve sushi, what more could we need?”

At this time I was eating lunch on campus about once every couple weeks. Since I had a long break I was able to either eat at my apartment or travel to an off campus restaurant. I loved the days when I got to bite into a Chick-fil-A nugget or Godfather sandwich on campus during my break, something about not having to leave the university to get my meal just made the day easier.

This semester however I chose to only give myself an hour in between classes so I could get the day over with sooner, therefore I eat on campus at least three times a week. For the first month I was loving life, I rotated between Chick-fil-A, Market Street Deli and Gus Mart sushi smiling during every bite. As the weeks dragged on however I began to realize that Jozsef may have been right. Georgia Southern University, especially compared to other universities around Georgia, has a severely limited amount of dining options for students.

Georgia Southern University is soon to be the third biggest college in all of Georgia. As Jozsef stated in his article, UGA has 23 dining locations for students, Georgia Tech has 17, and Georgia State has 19 while Georgia Southern offers only eight. These restaurants are very spread out and attract a large number of students during lunch time, making wait times unbearable.

While Chick-fil-A may be the greatest restaurant on Earth, no matter how much you love it, eating there multiple times a week will eventually get tiring. Your other options are waiting 40 minutes for a sandwich in the IT building or spending up to $12 on sushi. While the sushi is delicious, it is not very filling and if you decide to go to Market Street Deli you risk being late to class since they can only make up to twelve sandwiches at a time.

Tapingo may speed up the process slightly, but students are still having to wait upwards of half an hour just to get their meal. While it may cost a lot up front, investing in more dining options on campus is something that everyone (including staff) would support. I asked a few Eagles whether they thought their campus needed a few more dining options and here is what they had to say:

Renee Patrick Junior Marketing Johns Creek, Ga

“We could have more just because a lot of people like to eat a lot of different foods and have a lot of different dietary needs. Also the lines are always really long at the places we do have so I feel like if we have more our student population could disperse and eat at different places.”

Briana Riggs Freshman Springfield, GA

“I just feel like the dining options we do have are very low quality. The emphasize health but we do not have a lot of good healthy options, but we have mediocre healthy options. There is not a lot of food diversity. I have eaten chicken fingers the past three days, literally. I [was served] a raw omelet the other day [from the dining commons], it was gross. A lot of the food is not cooked well, especially in the dining commons. I have to eat there because I have a dining plan, but they close all of the options at 7 o’clock, so after then all you can eat is pizza, and I don’t eat pizza.”

Eric Moore Sophomore Accounting Hinesville, GA

“I think there should be more dining options on campus. When I go to different buildings I see usually Gus Mart, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A but other than that there are not too many different options. We have a diverse group of students and I am sure they would like different options as well.”

Leah Birdsong Senior Psychology Stone Mountain, GA

“We defiantly deserve more dining options, especially since our campus is expanding. We built a building last year and we are building one now but we have yet to build something involving food in a while. Not everyone wants to eat fried food all the time or food that is not even good especially since we are paying for it. A meal plan here is extreme for you to have food that is mediocre and to eat the same food over and over again. I know that I would not want to pay for the dining commons out of pocket. I know at Chick-fil-A we have a rush, people are rushing to get to class, and they stand in that long line and they’re waiting to get their food and they are very anxious.”