How many times each day do you have a meal in Pearsons? Although the number might vary, many of us rely on Pearsons Hall for our daily nutrition as well as for our unhealthy snacks throughout the day. Pearsons Hall is in the center of campus for a special reason: to ensure that meals are prepared for all students to enjoy for the nourishment of our bodies. However, if the place that is set to make sure we are healthy and well taken care of isn’t open when the students need it to be, it is, technically, useless. Pearsons Hall closes at 8:00 p.m. during the week and is only opened twice on the weekend. The only solutions to this problem is for Pearsons to be opened 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
College students rarely have leisure money. Between tuition going up every year and expensive books that need to be bought for classes, money is easily slipping away from college students’ pockets and into the hands of educators, bookstore clerks, and the supposed “inexpensive” innovation, printing. Unfortunately, with Pearsons closing so early and Isaac’s closing an hour and a half later, we are forced to go to fast food establishments and spend money that some of us don’t have. Being on a shoestring budget is very difficult when food is the essential part of life and we have to go off of campus to enjoy it. Meal Plans that hard earned money bought are not being used and the money that we are using for food can be used towards other educational purposes.
Almost half of Maryville’s student body is made of athletes. Maryville College offers over a dozen of different sports for both men and women to be involved in. Between football, tennis, cross-country running, and many more, it is very important to get plenty of exercise and well-balanced meals. Easy access to exercise is very vacant and free; however, the same cannot be said about the food supply. Athletes are continuously growing. Truthfully, the bigger the person, the bigger their plate is expected to be. Also, hunger waits for no one. Some practices end late. Pearsons is closed and Issac’s is clean across campus. For example, my friend, Joshua Brooks, plays basketball. One day, workouts ran a little over the specific end time and he missed dinner at Pearsons and was too tired to walk to Isaac’s. He had to go to sleep hungry because he had a 9 a.m. class the next morning and did not have the time to go get anything to eat. We are sometimes forced to get in our cars that are a hop, skip, and a jump away from our residence halls and drive to a nearby fast food establishment that is opened 24 hours.
Studying requires some type of motivation or brain food. If Pearsons were opened 24/7, students would be able to get a hot meal instead of converting to the “college food” that has always been and always will be coffee. Caffeine can give you that sugar rush you need to get your work done, but having a well-balanced meal can benefit you more in studying and in the long run. It can be difficult to alternate the two, but being in college, it is always about thinking for the future. It cannot and will not be beneficial to drink coffee all night and continue to be up and alert for the task ahead. Coffee is being prepared by already caffeinated individuals whose minds are not focused on the important task ahead.
Although Pearsons Hall being opened for 24/7 sounds like a fantastic idea, there are a bit of disadvantages such as a change in employees’ lifestyles or, maybe even a bigger increase in tuition. If Pearsons stays open 24/7, it can change the way employees of Metz interact with their families if they ever get to see them. Making an efficient schedule will be very difficult because a decrease in employees will begin because they will start to complain about how much work it takes and the amount of time and effort put into their jobs. Money for employees working all night will be very expensive and it will be up to the students at Maryville College to pitch in to help the payroll of Metz workers.
In conclusion, Pearsons Hall should be opened 24 hours a day, 7 days per week because college students rarely have leisure money, almost half of Maryville’s campus is made of athletes, and studying requires some type of motivation or brain food. Despite the few flaws, this idea can benefit all students in the long run. Getting Pearsons to extend nonstop services to students is not easy, but definitely not impossible to get the plan to work.
