Kevin Brassell, Senior
270 792 8854
Franklin, KY

No Brown Baggin’ at Western.
Some students can afford to eat on campus every day. From Subway to the Downing University Center’s new Red Zone, students may spend five to ten dollars every day. Should students choose to bring lunch, one would think WKU would accommodate their needs.
One day, my friends called and asked me to meet them for lunch at the new “restaurant” in DUC called the Red Zone. Although I normally bring my own lunch, we were sure WKU would accommodate the needs of a commuting student. Upon entrance to the Red Zone, we asked a waitress if I could heat up my lunch in their microwave. Instead of just doing the favor, I found myself in front of the manager, and she began explaining that “outside” food cannot be brought in the “restaurant.” She said, “If you were eating at the Brickyard Caf?, downtown, you would not ask them to heat up the lunch that you brought, would you?” I then told her, “No I wouldn’t, but this is not the Brickyard. It is an extension of WKU’s campus cafeteria, and I’d like to eat lunch with my friends.”
We all know that restaurants such as the one she mentioned do not ask customers to get up and order themselves and make their own drinks either, do they? Well, I bit my tongue, remained polite, and wondered why they would make a big deal of this instead of helping a fellow student and possibly make a couple of dollars from the drink I would have bought, plus my future business.
After this ordeal, I continued to hunt down a microwave throughout the floors and halls of DUC, with no luck. So I promptly bought two dollars worth of Taco Bell and walked in and ate lunch in Red Zone with my friends anyway. In addition to the drama, the three people I ate with said that the food there wasn’t that great, the wings were skimpy, and it was over priced.
Three issues can be addressed here. For one, shouldn’t there be accommodations for those who bring their own lunch to school? Another is what are the requirements for calling your business a “restaurant.” The other question remains, is it worth it to dodge doing a favor for a fellow student, when we’re all in this together?