At the beginning of the spring semester, Concordia students returned to campus to find their usual dining hall glasses missing. Where the thick glass cups that had been a staple at Anderson Commons used to tower, stacks of plastic cups sat instead.
This was not the first time students found their usual utensils swapped while away. A recent victim of this surprise plastic exchange was the ceramic mugs used for hot drinks in the dining hall, swapped for black plastic replicas at the beginning of the most recent fall semester.
“I was here the first day we put them out there. Kids would instantly pick it up and go, ‘What is this?’” said Pat Dew, a supervisor for dining services at Concordia. “It is kind of funny watching students chase their plastic glass that bounces around [when dropped]. They all get embarrassed.”
But the cups haven’t been swapped out for a few good laughs. This change came about primarily for safety. Dining staff no longer worried about cleaning up shattered glass that could appear anywhere in the Commons, and often came accompanied by a standing ovation for the breaker.
“When I hear glass hit the ground, it makes a distinctive noise. When glass hits the ground and breaks, there usually is applause,” Dew explained. “I don’t hear as many applauses anymore.”
Another issue was the longevity of the glasses. The higher quality of the mugs and glasses often had them mysteriously disappearing from dining hall shelves. With the surplus of breakages and thefts, Dew claimed they were buying around 1,200 new glasses each year.
Contributed/Megan Noggle
The existing glasses, while phased out of daily use, have not been donated, recycled, or discarded. Instead, they sit in storage for future events that require a bit more class than plastic can provide.
One perk students can glean from the new cups is the size. The plastic cups hold half an ounce more than their glass predecessors and are significantly lighter. They also have no cooldown time after washing. Paired with their weight change, this means they can be restocked much more efficiently.
So far, Dew claims only one plastic cup had to be removed from the dining hall circulation after it fell and was stepped on in the dishwashing room.
“That’s the only thing I’ve seen so far,” he said. “One glass got cracked and it was by a staff member. It did not shatter.”
While breakages overall seem to be happening less, when they do, the broken materials can be recycled — just like when they were glass.
Students don’t need to worry about eating off paper plates and plastic silverware in the future either. No other dining hall utensil has posed quite as large of a safety risk as the shattering of cups and mugs yet.
“Plates are gonna stay the same. Bowls are gonna stay the same,” said Dew. “The student body deserves good quality.”
