College years count for GC&SU students’ future

From the first day of high school – and for many of us, even before that – older friends, teachers, school counselors, and parents take it upon themselves to remind us that these are the years that count.

Our grades count, our extracurriculars count, even our attitudes count. After all our GPA’s, after school involvements, and faculty recommendations play the leading role in getting us into college.

We’re also unable to forget that college will be different. No more repeated reminders from our teachers, no more parental power to bail us out, no more free and comfortable living at home – these amenities fall inside the realm of high school; and though changes are frequently welcome at age eighteen, we must prepare ourselves for a world outside our comfort zones. For vegetarian students who will live in dorms without kitchens, stepping outside that comfort zone can be especially tough: just finding a decent healthy meal may be difficult.

We know Georgia College & State University offers accommodations for disabled students. But what about others of us who choose a different way of life? Can a small university, even one that prides itself on diversity, manage to provide for everyone it serves?

Forty or 50 years ago, vegetarianism was an almost unheard of concept in mainstream America. The 1960s brought a sea of change in clothing, social standards – and diet. For the first time, students on campuses across the country had given up meat entirely, and the dining halls they depended on had a new challenge.

In 2003, vegetarianism is relatively common, but finding healthy meatless alternatives is still a problem for many vegetarians, especially those living in a small town in Georgia. Most restaurants downtown offer vegetarian cuisine, and the addition of a Kroger has brought new grocery options; but otherwise the vegetarian is quite limited. Imagine arriving, famished, at Applebees with a group of friends. If you were a vegetarian, what would you order? Not beef, of course – not pork or fish – and even seemingly meatless dishes often contain small meat slivers that are almost impossible to pick out. Vegetarians seem doomed to meal after meal of bland garden salads.

Luckily, GC&SU’s dining hall offers many creative dishes for vegetarian students, Briggette Redding in Dining Services explains.

“We offer a veggie burger every day at the Grill, a vegetarian entree at Classic, tofu upon request at International, and we always keep a cheese pizza at Pizza’rette,” she said.

In addition, The Pit on campus offers cheese quesadillas and vegetarian-friendly sandwiches.

Having been a vegetarian for four and a half years, I was relieved to find that my school offered lots of options for my meals. From vegan vegetarians – who eat no meat or other animal products, including dairy – to those vegetarians who eat fish, everyone can find a healthy and varied meal at GC&SU.

Why do students “go veggie?” Sometimes their revised diet is only a temporary thing, lasting only through college, while others consider vegetarianism a healthy choice, and still others are simply making a political statement. No matter why their classmates choose a veggie lifestyle, GC&SU students seem pretty tolerant every brand of vegetarianism, even if they would never take the plunge themselves.

Sophomore Lyndsay Lett may define herself as “totally a meat person,” but she admits that vegetarianism is “good for some people.”

Freshman Brook Cheramie said of vegetarianism, “If that’s what you want to do, fine. I support it.” She would even consider going veggie for a day, just to see what it was like.

Perhaps that would be an educational challenge for anyone: Pretend you’re a vegetarian for a day, or even just for one meal. Consider the challenges, the reasons, but most of all, consider the clean, healthy feeling left behind after finishing off a meatless meal. You might be surprised, and you’ll definitely be more understanding when your vegetarian friend turns down an invitation to McDonald’s.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 14 2003. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry