There are not many bad things you can say about Loyola. Granted, I have only been here for one semester, but from what I have seen, this school does all it can to keep its students happy and entertained. Loyola has bands that come and play in the Peace Quad during the day so students can relax in between classes and just listen to music. It has movie and trivia nights where you can choose to use your brain (or not) and win prizes that you actually want when you do choose to engage neurons. And when all of that fails, you can always go to the Rec Plex and play basketball and volleyball, swim and so on and so forth. All in all this is a great university, but the one area that I feel needs improvement is the entrée selection in the cafeteria.

I know that Loyola is a small university and they can only provide so much in terms of variety in the cafeteria, but if there were two main entrees you could choose from instead of one, it would make the cafeteria much better. Then students would not dread eating there as much; they wouldn’t fear the pangs of palate fatigue. Sure, there are other foods you can choose from, like pizza, burgers or a sandwich; but these choices hardly lend themselves to the well-rounded, pyramid-shaped diet that the surgeon general recommends. What we need are different daily choices for the meal. For instance, at dinner we could have a choice between fish with steamed vegetables and pasta, and country fried steak with mashed potatoes and corn.

This way, if you did not like the meal the cafeteria is serving that night for dinner, you would have another to choose from, rather than the same alternative options that are there every day. I think that the cafeteria should strive to be healthier. I mean, I like country fried steak with gravy as much as the next guy, but I don’t want to have fried food every night. While there are some healthy options, there are equally only so many times a man can eat salad and sushi. Besides, it is a little contradictory if the university talks about adding mandatory physical education to the curriculum as a way to battle the freshman 15, when the cafeteria is serving fried food every night for dinner.

Yet, the food sure is tasty. The caloric content and transfats notwithstanding, the food is certainly good. You don’t hear many people complain about the taste of the food. And despite their small selection, they do try to accommodate everyone. Take for example their vegetarian option. This is not simply a salad (which my girlfriend will tell you is entirely unacceptable as a meal option) – this dish is usually bursting with vegetables atop some form of pasta.

I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression about the cafeteria. It’s not that the food is bad, because it’s not. But I think with more options, students would be more satisfied. They would not have to choose between a meal either packed with extra calories or devoid of essential nutrients and taste. Having a wider range of options could actually help to battle the freshman 15 – or in my case, the junior jiggle.

Greg Cook is a psychology junior from New Jersey.