Perry Cafeteria’s new a la carte system, which allows students to pay only for what they get, is much-needed but has at least one flaw: its absolute dependence on the MSU Honor Code.
As of now, there is little way to stop someone from getting more food than they pay for at the door. MSU President Mark Keenum and vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler expressed to The Reflector Jan. 30 their complete trust in students to abide by the honor program.
We appreciate the fact that the school trusts students and treats us like the adults we are. Nonetheless, adults steal too. There should be some type of regulation in place to prevent people from stealing. For instance, it would help to put the cashiers between the seating area and the food as one goes to sit down.
Taking some basic steps to prevent food from being stolen wouldn’t be an insurmountable task. We disagree with Kibler’s argument that the “only reasonable way” to have an a la carte system is to rely on the honor program.
And why not implement regulations? Sure, the Honor Code is there, but the current system works similarly to a teacher who leaves all the answers to a test in a book at the front of the classroom but before walking out of the room, tells the students to obey the Honor Code and not look at the book.
It’s as if they’re asking for trouble. Who’s going to be blamed if the honor system doesn’t work? We hope it wouldn’t be students, faculty, staff or guests, most of whom will probably honor the system. But if just a few of them do cause problems, we don’t want it to be used against us in order to launch unnecessary rules in other areas of student life.
Furthermore, the cafeteria already had to close its side doors to stop customers from walking out with food or entering without paying. It seems contradictory to close the side doors for security reasons and then make the honor program the sole foundation of the new system.
The abuse of MSU’s public bicycles are an example of how rules get broken if there is no method of enforcement. Many of them have been vandalized and taken off campus.
As with bikes, the a la carte system as it stands now creates the possibility for Aramark to lose money, and as students, we should demand fiscal responsibility. If someone steals from the cafeteria, they are stealing from us, and we don’t want prices to increase because of a loss of money due to customers getting more food than they pay for.
The Reflector editorial board is made up of opinion editor Matt Watson, news editor Lawrence Simmons, assistant news editor Josh Starr, sports editor Brandon Wright, entertainment editor Bailey Singletary, photo editor Bud Sorey, copy editors Aubra Whitten and Carl Smith, online editor Adam Kazery, managing editor Kyle Wrather and editor in chief Erin Kourkounis.