After months of renovating and restructuring, the Samia Academic Center dining hall is back in action, now featuring a South Station-esque pay gate that prevents students from utilizing the dining hall seating area unless they pay to enter the dining hall itself.
While the gates themselves are a very small addition to the renovation, it’s much more than a gate; It’s a barrier to a third space used and beloved by commuters and residential students.
There are plenty of things wrong with the new dining setup (don’t even get me started on Aramark’s other high-profile clients like Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It’s no secret that the restructuring of the dining plan was confusing, at best, and controversial, at a minimum, but one of the biggest issues encountered by students is that they are now deprived of an easy-to-access third space. Samia Center dining hall served not only as a place to eat, but a place to unwind and recuperate in between classes for commuters and residential students alike that didn’t cost them anything…