Editorial Dish theft to doom students to finals sans midnight breakfast

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With exams fast approaching, settle in with your books, hunker down with your notes - and get ready to kiss that beloved midnight breakfast tradition goodbye. Director of Dining Services Matthew Biette sent out an ominous e-mail two weeks ago threatening Middlebury students as one would to small children. If we do not return the thousands of utensils, glasses and pieces of dishware taken this semester from the dining halls, Biette said, the traditional midnight breakfast menu during final exams will be limited to a Spartan spread of coffee and donuts.

The response has been nonexistent. Biette told The Campus that, since the e-mail went out, the situation has not changed at all. Unless a significant number of the stolen dishes are returned by tomorrow, he said, midnight breakfast as we have long known it will be a thing of the past.

At the root of the problem is not only the utter lack of personal accountability among members of the student body but also the deep-rooted feeling of entitlement we have long harbored. We're accustomed to being pampered. What's more, the student body largely feels that it deserves to be spoiled. After all, we tell ourselves, we're certainly paying enough for this education. Why shouldn't we be given free range of the dining halls? Why shouldn't we be allowed to take a plate of food with us back to our rooms? And if we leave those same dishes in our dormitories, why shouldn't we expect someone else to return them for us?

The fact of the matter is, by stealing dishware from the dining halls, or carelessly leaving newspapers strewn about our tables for Dining Services employees to clean up, we show a cavalier disregard for the fellow members of our community, and for the efforts the College and College employees take to make our lives easier. Members of Dining Services and the Facilities teams work tirelessly to feed us well and keep our homes in tip-top shape. By and large, they show a great trust in us. Unlike most any other college in the country, ours allows us to waltz in and out of our dining halls whenever we please without so much as having to stop to flash our College IDs. Our recent behavior, however, only undermines that hard work and trust.

And so the College is resorting to threats. Dining Services is not alone here, though Biette in his foxhole is a recognizable target. Once again, as President of the SGA Max Nardini '08 explained in one of the countless e-mails he sent to the student body recently, we run the risk of losing national newspapers in the dining halls if we do not quite literally clean up our act.

Perhaps these bribes seem juvenile. Students have behaved like children, however. And so we applaud Biette and his team for their "solution" to this problem. While the bribe to bring back dishware was humiliating, perhaps it is appropriate that Middlebury students finally have to face the consequences of their behavior.

The principle of the thing aside, the case of the disappearing dishes is ultimately a financial question. As Biette noted in his e-mail to students, students are the ones to pay for the thousands of mugs, bowls, plates, glasses and pieces of silverware that go missing each semester. Miss that salt and pepper on each table? Unhappy about the lack of trays or juice or granola at dinner? Realizing the reality of budget constraints - and acting to alleviate those problems as best we can - is the only answer.

Sad though it may be, we realize our call for personal accountability will most likely fall on deaf ears. If you want to save midnight breakfast, though, hurry - with decisions to be made about food orders and staffing, we only have until tomorrow to put ourselves in Biette's good graces again. It's time to shape up, grow up and clean up.