Blog Entry 1

Of all the daily activities undertaken by the typical Union student, surely the one most afflicted with poor design is dining at West. In order to bring some of West's flaws to light, I will narrate a typical dining experience during the most popular meal, brunch.

The diner begins at the entrance at the top-right of the diagram. The initial options are on the diner's right, at the top of the diagram. To the right of the grill, pasta. There is the grill making omelettes, and to the left of the grill, a variety of breakfast foods, with oatmeal at the end. Suppose the diner wants pasta. They will wait in the line, which extends out into the hall. Why is it taking so long? Because the line for the pasta is the same as the line for the grill, which naturally is very slow, since people must wait for their omelettes. Thus the diner who simply wants pasta must wait for omelettes as well, even though she does not intend to get one. Frustrated with the wait, the diner decides to skip pasta and get some oatmeal. The diner must first squeeze through the entryway at the top-right of the diagram, since it is blocked by the line for omelettes, then navigate the small strait between the grill and the central island. After squeezing between the two lines for the aforementioned areas, our hapless diner must awkwardly wait by the oatmeal. Naturally, people who have waited through the entire line should have first priority in accessing food here. So the diner waits for an opening, then darts in and grabs what they want. This issue is common, and the result is that students are constantly lingering behind the line at the grill, generating chaos and congestion.

This anecdote has already become too long, so I will conclude by pointing to some general problems. Unlike Upper Dining, West is circular. Upper provides food in a reasonable order, providing a linear path for diners as well as ample space for the indecisive and second-helping-getters to reinsert themselves into the path where they so desire. West, however, being a circle, forces diners to constantly backtrack. For example, a diner may want pasta from the grill, a drink from the drink station, and a sandwich from the sandwich line. The diner must wait in line for the pasta, then squeeze through to the drinks, then navigate around the central island, inevitably going against the flow of traffic, to get to the sandwiches. This might be tolerable if there was more room, but unfortunately the narrow conduits only amplify the congestion generated by West's disorganization. Dining Services has made repeated attempts to ameliorate these problems, but in this blogger's opinion they have not succeeded.