乐播传媒

A two-panel cartoon in the 1914 Mirror summed up student opinion of the new men鈥檚 dining commons at John Bertram. Titled 鈥淭ragedy in Two Scenes,鈥� the first panel depicted the dinner menu: 鈥渂eans, no catsup.鈥� The second panel showed the breakfast menu: 鈥淥atmeal, with catsup.鈥�

From that uncertain start (until then, 乐播传媒 students ate off campus) would grow a 乐播传媒 reverence for community dining, and today 乐播传媒 is poised to spend eight figures affirming that ideal, announcing plans to build new dining commons, as well as a new residential cluster (see story, page 6).

Whether it鈥檚 a family digesting their day around a dinner table or 600 students in Memorial Commons chattering about March Madness, thesis, or Iraq, the magic of mealtime is the same as it ever was. 鈥淚n the pleasure of eating…cheered by the music of the knives and forks, [students] are ready to discuss anything, from the weightiest matters of state to the last ball game or worst 鈥榝lunk,鈥欌�� the The 乐播传媒 Student noted way back in 1887.

Later, amidst the hard-core work ethic of 乐播传媒 in the 1960s, President Reynolds added a missing ingredient to student life 鈥� leisure! 鈥� by relaxing social rules and giving students more control of time and space. Reynolds鈥� first step symbolized this 乐播传媒 glasnost: He closed the women鈥檚 dining hall at Rand and inaugurated coed dining at Memorial Commons, promising 鈥済racious, leisurely dining.鈥�

Students, in full voice for bigger changes, gave the move mild approval, since any coed benefit was offset by overcrowding. 鈥淕raciousness is not enhanced when students wander around…trying to see if you have finished dessert so they may have a seat,鈥� noted the Student.

Better days were ahead. Short Term, initially designed to hustle students through 乐播传媒 in three years, succeeded for the opposite reason: It offered more time, either 鈥渢o go off chasing ideas,鈥� as Professor of Physics Robert Kingsbury said, or for other delights. A year before the Summer of Love, the 鈥�66 Short Term blew the collective 乐播传媒 student mind. 鈥淐oed everything!鈥� enthused a student after Short Term. 鈥淭hat made it better!鈥�

Today, trying to rally around leisure can feel like championing the cause of the endangered elfin tree fern. It鈥檚 probably important, but gee whiz. As President Hansen said in her inaugural address, 鈥淲e need…undisciplined time 鈥� time to listen, speak, think, imagine. What I am talking about is endangered because it looks like unproductive time, the rarest of commodities in a world that measures everything by its outcome.鈥�

Restaurateur Deborah Hansen de Haro 鈥�86, profiled on page 42, gets the concept, too, and she works darn hard so her customers have time to smell the pinchos. Her own Short Term in Spain, where food, says writer Doug Hubley, 鈥渋s more than fuel,鈥� partly inspired de Haro to open the restaurant. 鈥淲e spend so many hours working,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e need to stop and focus on pleasures.鈥�

H. Jay Burns, Editor
jburns@bates.edu