With the declining balance system, students pay for exactly what they eat. Gone is the "pay before you can even grab a seat" set-up. At the Waves Cafe, today, anyone can wander into the cafeteria and pull up a chair.
With prices clearly affixed at each food station, students now have to come to grips with the cold, hard facts about the cost of their meals. And let’s face it, when you are trapped into eating a meal that you are not a big fan of, the last thing you want to know is that you could be eating a burrito at La Salsa for less. But according to a recent notice disseminated by Residential Life, the prices of the cafeteria food are based on both actual food costs as well as the prices of food in area restaurants.
Though this smaller food area does tend to get crowded during the prime dinner hours of 6 and 7 p.m., the lines at the various food counters are not as long as the lines that used to snake around the cafeteria. The other main "con" is the end of the all-you-can-eat era at the cafeteria. No longer can you grab a plateful of today’s special of sushi, decide it’s not for you, and get a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich instead. Well, you can; only now it will cost you a bit more.
Nevertheless, there are some students who would just as soon not eat any cafeteria food ... ever. The RLO notice explains, "This system was built with the understanding that the typical Pepperdine student misses about 55% of his/her meals."
It’s like apples to oranges. We critique and compare the old caf to the new Waves Cafe to the local McDonald’s (for those other 55 percent of the meals) for pros and cons and a little comedy. Bon appetite!