Has anyone had a bite of salad lately? If you’ve beengoing to get “real food” at Umphrey Lee, then a bite isthe most you could probably have.

This is because Umphrey Lee no longer has the large, whiteporcelain bowls, which students of years past are familiar with.Instead they have moved to small, black plastic bowls thatdon’t hold nearly enough.

This is for cost-effectiveness. Apparently, the bowls have to bereplaced every so often, simply as a sanitary matter. Thereplacement of 500 porcelain bowls was obviously deemed an expensethe school could do without.

Also, Ed board is of the belief that perhaps studentsweren’t eating all that was taken, and the Real Food onCampus people figured that smaller bowls might mean lesswastage.

Never mind the fact that now students can’t actually get abowl of cereal or salad. If someone wants to make a meal of eitherof those, they would be forced to use at least two or possiblythree bowls.

Twice as many bowls will probably mean twice as many accidentsas well. Actually, more accidents are likely, as the light weightof the bowl leads to more of those “just need to get aspooOops” moments. Also, they don’t actually have arim, or anything really to hold onto. This makes it difficult to doanything with them, such as get the milk for your cereal ordressing for your salad.

Yet another problem with the new bowls is that they always seemto be soaking wet. This is likely due to the inability to dry theplastic bowls with high heat. While it’s good that they aregetting clean, most people prefer their cereal dry as opposed tosoaked in water.

There are some logical reasons for going with the plastic bowls.These are a drastically reduced chance of breaking, as well assimply a lower cost, which is a major problem for a place thatcharges seven dollars for a cafeteria-style meal.

So RFoC is going to be saving money, but at what cost to studentbody convenience?

But the problem isn’t as bad as it would seem. If you askfor a regular, full-size bowl, chances are you’ll be able toget one. Just make sure you don’t drop it.