Cafeteria size stifles students

Students are finding the new cafeteria in the Sam Rayburn Student Center cramped.

Various students at Texas A&M University - Commerce have voiced complaints about overcrowded conditions in the SRSC cafeteria compared to the old cafeteria that used to reside in the Sam Rayburn Memorial Student Center.

"I remember walking through the new student center for the first time," senior Ashley Murphy said. "I was really impressed with the size of the new building, only to find out the cafeteria was much smaller than the old cafeteria."

The size reduction of the cafeteria has proven to be a problem between friends.

"There are only a handful of large tables available for us to use," senior Jesse Casarez said. "It is really hard for large groups of friends to eat and sit together. There are not enough big tables and it forces friends to pull a few of the small tables together. The cafeteria also runs out of space for everyone during the busy part of the day, and I really don't like sitting with strangers."

Casarez explained that pulling the numerous small tables together can cause even more problems.

"When one group pulls the small tables together, it can make the cafeteria even more confined than it already is," he said. "You can barely pull your chair out and that proves to be very uncomfortable."

Casarez is not the only student that feels the cafeteria is lacking space and room for friends.

"The cafeteria is quite cramped especially when the high school students join us for lunch," sophomore Andrew Stamper said. "The old cafeteria had an expansion room for when numbers grew too high and had a plethora of large tables to spare. Now, we have to fight for the bigger tables between the close-knit chairs and booths."

Sodexo Campus Services has comment cards for student feedback. Students can take advantage of this and address their specific concerns or complaints on the comment board.