I guess it's possible that all those students hanging out at the Memorial Union or the Silo are discussing, not their classes or professors or movies, but ways to shut down the university, spread anarchy and destroy the government. They may look as if they're simply having lunch or drinking coffee, but appearances can be deceiving.
Yet even if the MU is a hotbed of student radical rabble-rousing, and even if such activity is dangerous, I believe the Coffee House's veggie chili in a bread bowl amply compensates for such democratic excesses.
I came to this conclusion during a year-long exchange program with the University of Bordeaux. I had visions of sitting at a table at the student union, drinking coffee, smoking Gauloises and watching young philosophers mill around in front of me. It was not to be. In France, at least at Bordeaux, there is no central meeting place for students.
I was told this was a deliberate choice. In the riots and rebellions of the '60s, the universities were removed from downtown centers and placed in neighboring suburbs. They have been intentionally decentralized and designed to offer no place for students to congregate. The concrete buildings appear to have been hastily constructed with little thought for aesthetics. Although there are places to get coffee, a pastry or even a "sandwich" (half a baguette and a slice of ham), these are cramped, uncomfortable and unappealing. It is not a campus that invites lingering. Most students and faculty go to class and then go home.
Although my aesthetic and social sensibilities were bruised, my digestive ones fared worse. As a vegetarian in France, I was a curiosity. When dining out, I never had to worry about choices; the only question was whether there would be even one dish without meat. One restaurant told me that they would have to know two weeks ahead of time if I wanted something meatless. Another insisted the soup was vegetarian, and when I pointed out that it had chicken, I was told, "You can just pick those pieces out."
Thus, the Memorial Union seems to me a type of culinary heaven. I can choose among soups, salads, sandwiches and other fare. More importantly, I don't have to constantly wrestle with the issue of "vegetarianism." I can simply place my order and eat.
I don't even mind the crowds. At lunch time, when all the tables are jammed, I go to my secret spot. (I don't hesitate to reveal it here because most alumni have left Davis.) Even when the ground floor of the MU is packed, there's almost always an empty table downstairs at the bowling alley.
When I was in Bordeaux and people asked, "What do you miss?" I answered truthfully "nothing." I was too busy discovering new things to crave old ones. But when I returned, that first day back on campus I ate a barbecued tofu burger, did my errands and later returned to the Coffee House for coffee and a cookie. I sat there and watched the backpacks pass in front of me and thought, "This. Yes. This."
-- Joseph Mills, Ph.D. '98
