Breakfast: $6.05. Lunch/Brunch: $7.95. Dinner: $9.95. Having a dining hall in your dorm: priceless. At least, that’s how the sign announcing prices at the BARH Dining Hall might read to a newly arrived freshman. And, indeed, the dining halls on campus all generally live up to the high standards RPI students have. Granted, there are slips, and I’ll get to them in a moment—but I think it’s important to mention here that overall, the quality of the food seems to get better with each passing semester. That said, Sodexho’s operations on campus have both their good and bad points.

For instance, as a BARH resident this semester, I found myself puzzled for the first two weeks as to why I could not find a palatable dinner in my nearby dining hall. Though my complaints up and down the chain of command did me little good, excellently prepared hot dinners began appearing night after night on the third week, and I can give no explanation whatsoever for this. All of a sudden, dinners like barbecued ribs, barbecued chicken, tortellini with meatballs, and many other favorites began appearing—hunting around Troy and Albany for dinner no longer became necessary. You will have to inexplicably wait half an hour longer for dinner than anyone else at 5:30, which is inconvenient if you have a tight schedule as I do, but in the end, the wait is well worth it.

While I’m on the topic of meals, let me point out to those considering having breakfast at my adopted dining hall, that it is not served. The dining hall is open, but with about three people on staff and only muffins and a few eggs in a basket to show for it, breakfast is—pardon the pun—not too hot. Serving hot entrées as simple as ham, pancakes, and tater tots would solve the problem and would serve to nourish many residents more adequately for a long day.

One of the analogies Sodexho uses to describe dining hall satisfaction is this: “Imagine eating your favorite food at your favorite restaurant. Now imagine eating there three times a day every day for two semesters.” I’ve frequently found that analogy useful, but I haven’t yet tired of my favorite: chicken cooked 1,001 ways. On some nights, however, I prefer my own analogy, “Imagine your favorite restaurant serving dill cod (something neither my roommate nor I can stomach). Now imagine all the restaurants in town you ever went to serving dill cod—on the same night!” Note to Sodexho: Students wander from dining hall to dining hall when they don’t find an entrée they like; don’t serve the same entrée everywhere on the same night—it hurts morale.

And then we come to the sticking point—price. You’ll find that the difference between the Diamond plan (dinner all week) and Silver (no dinner on weekends) is a mere $258 dollars, at which point you’ll see how the prices on the door, the amount of times you use the dining hall, and the price of your plan have no relation to each other or the funny place we call reality whatsoever.