“I have never let schooling interfere with my education.” (-Mark Twain)

Today, I visited Miami University of Ohio, in Oxford, Ohio. After the rains last night and early this morning, I took a few minutes to relax near a gazebo and enjoy the gardens on campus.

Yesterday, on my drive, I heard an interesting story on NPR about a number of colleges around the nation that are putting an end to the use of cafeteria trays in their dining halls. I'd also read an article about this same issue in Time magazine recently.

Evidently these schools surmise that with the simple act of eliminating those trays, they can save substantial amounts of water and money. They also advocate that the tray-less meals are “greener” for those campuses. School nutritionists also think that with obesity as a major concern on campuses, students can’t carry as much food without the trays, juggling plates, bowls, glasses and flatware in their hands, and so they wind up eating less with the tray-less meals.

Finally, students don’t use as many napkins as they did when they’d grab a bunch of them and place them on trays, so schools will save on paper and costs associated with that practice as well.

I’m not sure that the students are thrilled with this notion, but the schools are! I’ll have to watch as I travel around to see which of the schools I visit are adopting this trend. I know from the discussions that some of them are supposed to be on that list…What’s your take on this? (campus sculpture below)

“Colleges are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.” (-Robert Green)