A month into the semester and students are settling into the day-to-day of university life. The usual hassles of waking up for an 8 a.m. class and balancing assignments are becoming routine, as are the issues experienced on campus.
A lack of quality and availability persists in food on campus, leaving freshman with required meal plans that they don’t want to use. With an ever-growing student population, parking continues to become overcrowded, with close spots hard to find. Despite seeing the same issues every year at the University of Idaho, food and parking fail to see improvement.
Long lines in the ISUB, undercooked chicken and moldy bread are just some of the experiences that students have had with dining on campus this year.
The long lines could be attributed to the university having the largest freshman class in 20 years and Idaho Eats having limited staffing. The limited staffing and large freshman class, however, doesn’t explain undercooked or moldy food. The quality of food in general also just hasn’t been good.
“The food quality is kind of iffy every now and then. Sometimes it’s really good, sometimes it’s not great, sometimes it’s just edible,” Emma Freitas, a first-yearstudent, said.
Although the food quality has been subpar in the Eatery, students enjoy the convenience, variety of food and opportunity to hang out with their friends.
“A pro would be getting to spend time with my friends because we don’t get to see each other all day, and the different types of food I think is pretty cool,” Emily Schauer, a first-year English student, said.
“My experience with dining here at the University of Idaho has been very convenient because I can come in whenever I want, when I’m hungry or to hang out with my friends,” Brooke Auth, a first-year marketing student and athlete at UI, said.
The Eatery has changed its hours this year so that the doors are open, and food is available, from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Last year, they closed periodically from 10-11 a.m. and 2-4 p.m. to get ready for lunch and dinner. This change was made to help accommodate students that may have only had the opportunity to eat when the Eatery was closed.
Still, the food options are limited during the hours that The Eatery was closed last year. The salad bar is open, and on occasion there are hamburgers or pizza. These limited options could also add to the reason that the lines in the ISUB are so long during lunch hours.
One change that has been made in The Eatery that some students haven’t enjoyed is that G8 is no longer self-serve. Since it’s supposed to be an allergen-free area, staff is now serving the food.
“My experience overall has been pretty bad; I haven’t enjoyed it. It’s better than last year, but I wish I could serve myself. I get one scoop then have to wait in another 15-minute line for more,” Jaiden Heue, a second-year student, said.
Although The Eatery may have more variety this year, and all the dining locations are open, dining on campus is still not a great experience. Whether it’s undercooked chicken, moldy bread, 20 minute long waits in the ISUB or students being unable to serve themselves, Idaho Eats has failed to serve students to their best ability. Staffing shortages can explain one of these gripes, but this is not a new issue for the university. There is no reason that students should be paying thousands of dollars to be served food that could make them sick.
In the same realm, plaguing the university for multiple years, parking has just been exacerbated by a large freshman class. This year parking has been tough to come by on top of construction and confusion about where students are allowed to park.
If you are a student who is living on campus, and not in Greek life, you get the choice between two parking permits. One being the economy permit, which costs $88, and the other being the silver permit which is $292.
“We’ve had a parking pricing plan for nearly six years now with it planned out for how the prices would increase each year,” Rebecca Couch, director of parking and transportation, said. “We received no general education dollars. So our budget is primary, our department and all that we do, is primarily funded by parking permits. They do make other revenue through the meters, parking meters and citations, but 70% comes from parking permits.”
With such a steep price difference, the economy lots are much further from on-campus residence, especially if you don’t live in Wallace. The lots that this permit allows you to park are just west of the Kibbie Dome in lot 57e and some on-street parking.
The on-street parking is new this year, allowing you to park in two sections of Perimeter Drive, the most prominent being near Guy Wicks Field, which now has cars lined up on both sides of the tight, curved street.
If you do choose to spend the extra $204 and get the silver permit, you’re also not in a great spot. While, yes, you are much closer to residence halls, it can still be tough to find parking. The silver permit allows you to park in three different lots, 62, 25 and five.
Most of the time, lot five is full and lot 25 is almost full, forcing you to park in the back. This makes it a long walk to any residence hall, but especially the LLCs, which can be tough if you are coming back with groceries.
The university is charging almost $300 a year to give student mediocre parking choices, and it’s even worse if you live off campus and drive in. The two main choices for off-campus commuting are red and orange.
Neither of these choices are particularly great, red being $193 and orange being $292. These lots are day-only parking, and they aren’t in a great spot.
The red permit’s parking is marginally better than the economy lot and shouldn’t be over $100 more than economy. The red permit allows you to park slightly closer in the Kibbie Dome parking lot, and you get a little street parking on Stadium Drive, Nez Perce Drive and Sixth Street
While orange does have better parking, it is far from a good deal. The orange permit costs the same as silver, except there is less parking and you can’t stay in those lots overnight.
Parking, like dining, has been a continuous issue at UI and will continue to be until the university actually does something about the issue and fixes what is going on.
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