page five
Students comment on food
By Karen Ratledge, Jai Jordan,
and Jane Allen
The Senate Food Committee
recently distributed three sur
veys on cafeteria conditions to
students in the cafeteria during
the evening meal. The compiled
results were very interesting, to
say the least.
85 people responded to the
first survey, which dealt with
the atmosphere of the dining
hall. The majority stated that
they would like to have music in
the cafeteria, but the type of
music preferred ranged from
disco to classical. There were
quite a few requests for WQFS,
also. Most of the respondents
felt that the dining hall is kept
clean. There were quite a few
gripes about the room tempera
ture; while the majority felt that
it is comfortable, many stated
that it is too cold in the winter
and too hot in the summer.
Most students said that they
appreciated special decorations.
Consensus was almost evenly
divided on the subject of the
present 21 meal per week plan.
Many felt this arrangement to
be adequate, while others said
that they should not be forced to
pay for meals that they do not
eat.
The second survey dealt with
the serving of food in the
cafeteria, and 82 people saw
reason to respond to it. These
people's general consensus was
that the cafeteria workers are
polite (most of the time), and
usually respond to diners' re
quests. Most of the respondents
felt that condiments, bevera
ges, etc. are not kept replen
ished, while about one fourth
said they are. The checkers are
evidently on their toes, because
PBS presented Scarlet Letter
By Mike Czysz
Nathaniel Hawthorne pub
lished his powerful and prophe
tic short novel The Scarlet
Letter in 1850. It told the story
of guilt, shame and lies set in
puritan Boston to a young
American nation. This literary
work is a story of the past, the
early American past of Puritan
ethics and conservative codes.
Hawthorne was recognized as a
forceful writer with the publish
ing of this book. Since then, it
has been read widely and
thoroughly in most every Ame
rican Lit course touching on that
time period.
During the week of April Ist,
the PBS stations across the
80 people said that they require
ID's for admission to the cafete
ria. One poor soul admitted, "I
wish not - I lost mine".
Feelings were mixed as to
whether the food is attractively
served. Most of the students in
this group felt that the meal
plan needs to be revised. As one
student put it, "I'm tired of
paying for Alpo that I don't
eat".
The third survey dealt with
the food itself. When
asked to rate the various foods
on a scale from 1 to 5, most
students gave the meats very
low ratings. The desserts were
deemed acceptable, as were the
beverages. The vegetables need
improvement and are overcook
ed, according to many. Soups,
salads, and condiments are
adequate for most people. Ma
ny people do not know about the
vegetarian dishes, and those
that do give varied ratings. The
majority of people felt that
portions of food are the wrong
size, with some saying they are
too big while others said they
are too small. One person said
that servings "vary with the
time of day, server's mood, and
phase of the moon". Once again
there was major dissatisfaction
with the meal plan.
Additional comments on all
three surveys included pleas for
more variety in meals, an
improvement in food quality,
the extension of weekend hours
(especially for Sunday dinner),
more fresh fruit, less starch,
more ice cream, pizza, less
tomato sauce, hotter food, more
flavorful food, an improvement
in the eggs at breakfast, and the
return of the large dividers.
Some of the classier com-
country aired a film portrayal of
Hawthorne's well-known clas
sic. The program was comple
ted by WCBH, the PBS affiliate
station in Boston, after four
years and two and half million
dollars were exhausted. This is
a notable step for American
television. The thorough and
extensive research that went
into the production paid off, for
the performance was striking
and excellent.
The main characters were
cast well. Meg Foster, playing
Hester Prynne, impresses us
with her steadfast attitude in
the face of the pain of the
scarlet letter, her punishment
for bearing her Pearl without a
father. The shaken minister,
Arthur Dimmesdale, was
played by John Heard who is
constantly under the torments
of Hester's believed-dead hus
band Roger Chillingworth, por
trayed by Kevin Conway. A
mystical air is given to the
character of young Pearl by
actions of Jessica Ruth Olin.
Although some of the novel's
scenes were retouched in the
WGBH production, most of the
story follows the book word for
word. The program's producer
director Rick Hauser. illus
Guilfordian
ments included "The food is
terrible and Shirley's personali
ty is worse", "it sucks (every
thing)", "Stop giving us that
recycled shit!", and "I'm sick
of waiting like a penned in
animal for food". Perhaps the
most poignant question of all
was "Is this survey going to do
any good?"
Stress and anxie
By Larkin Rogers
Last month, Claire Morse's
Research Methods class was
asked by Student Services if
they would be interested in
doing a study, on anxiety at
Guilford College. The class
consented to this and began to
formulate ideas for questions.
The ideas were compiled into
a three page questionnaire sur
vey designed to measure anxie
ty and look at the methods of
relieving it. Participants were
randomly selected; various
areas of student life were
studied.
Students were asked to report
sources of tension in their
everyday lives; academic con
cerns were the most frequently
mentioned tension sources, and
those listed included virtually
all the aspects of academic life.
Quite frequently listed were
social and personal issues, in
cluding issues of interpersonal
relations, feelings of fear, an
ger, loneliness, concern about
the future, and relations with
family. Financial and work-rela
ted problems were less common
than the above.
The number of tension pro-
▲
A
A
trates this when he says "when
we tried to rewrite Hawthorne,
we fell flatter than a fritter."
Thus in recreating Hawthorne's
novel, particular attention was
payed not only to Hawthorne's
text but to details of historical
accuracy. This fact is the major
reason for our enthusiasm over
the show. We were pleased
much more than expected by
the four part series. For those of
you who missed it, Guilford
College library's Media Center
has the segments on videotape.
Spend a few hours seeing
Hawthorne.
Eis ' 1 . a t
- -v., " ymtrl
Food waste /s a major factor pushing up cafeteria prices.
ducers varied by sex and class.
For men, tension producers
increased with the approach of
graduation: 4.1 for freshmen,
4.2 for sophomores, 4.4 and 4.8
for juniors and seniors respec
tively. Meanwhile, the tension
producers for women decrea
sed: 5.3 for freshmen, 5.5 for
sophomores, 4.9 for juniors,
and 4.7 for seniors. Males
reported an average of 4.31
tension producers; females re
ported an average of 5.28
tension producers that is, how
many tension producing factors
there seemed to be in the
student's life.
The second area surveyed
was dormitory living to deter
mine if it is stressful and for
what reasons. 58% of the
students surveyed stated that
dorm living was a source of
tension. Significantly more se
niors (74%) found dorm living,
stressful than did other stu
dents. More females (67%)
experienced tension than males
(51%). More Binford residents
(73%) and less Milner residents
(42%) than any other residents
found it stressful.
The respondents were also
asked if dorm living relieved
tension; 59% responded that it
did. Females found it more
relieving than males and more
Binford residents and fewer
English residents than any oth
er claimed that it relieved
tension. Apparently, then,
there are good things and bad
things to be said for dorm
living.
Some of the most frequently
sited causes of stress in dorms
were noise, lack of privacy,
roommate problems, gossip,
crowding, social pressures, and
inconsideration on the part of
other residents. The major
cause of tension relief reported
was the close proximity of peers
and friends.
Another battery of questions
dealt with tension relief. Re
spondents were asked to list
their favorite methods of ten
sion reduction and to rate the
personal effectiveness of each
method on a scale of one to five.
The most frequently listed
relief methods, regardless of
their perceived effectiveness in
reducing tension, were: sleep
ing, walking, conversing with a
friend, jogging, listening to
music," participating in team
sports, and consuming alcoholic
beverages.
The tension relief methods
rated as extremely effective by
female students were: doing
schoolwork, crying, self-analy
sis and problem confrontation,
sexual intercourse, and smok
ing marijuana.
April 25, 1979
One of the class members,
was interested in pressures on
athletes which may be dissimi
lar to the tensions experienced
by non-athletes. While it was
found that practice, competi
tion, coaches, scheduling, and
the opinions of other students
about athletes were all tension
producing, it was also found
that athletes experience some
what less tension than other
people surveyed.
f The final part of the ques
tionnaire was designed to find
out if people are interested in
therapy and what types of
therapies they are interested in.
The three therapies offered as
possible solutions to anxiety
were assertiveness training ses
sions, communication skills,
and values clarification ses
sions.
Freshmen and seniors tended
to be more interested in all of
the kinds of therapy with wo
men being more interested in
assertiveness training and com
munication skills. Women tend
ed to give all three therapy
possibilities an average of 2.75
on a rating scale of 0 to 5.
Both male and female juniors
were least interested in therapy
in any form. Males, especially
freshmen, were more interested
in assertiveness training than
either of the others by a
considerable margin.
While this study was not
designed to instantly cure an
xiety, the findings have been
given to Student Services to
help them become a more
useful and powerful aid to the
students.
The anxieties of college stu
dents are unique and this study
was done to try to identify
sources of anxiety with the hope
that more effective coping me
thods can be suggested by
Student Services. The students
in Research Methods would like
to thank all of our participants
for spending the time and
exerting the effort to help us
with this survey.