With a new semester comes a lot of changes. New friends, new classes, new extracurriculars and, of course, new eats. As college students, food is both a physical and emotional lifeline. From the countless mac and cheese and instant noodle cups while cramming for exams to the heartwarming dinner get-togethers after long days of studying, working and researching, our meals hold us together in even the most desperate times.

So naturally, when campus dining upgrades their menus, it can feel like a shining beacon of light waving in front of us. I, for one, know my friends and I have been excited about the upcoming crepes and gelato in Tomlinson Hall since the news was sent out.

But apart from fancy new foods and extended dining hall hours, other changes have quietly snuck onto campus with no announcement. Now that the excitement about the various updates has started to die down, I’ve been hearing more and more about things not worth celebrating. People mourn old menus and systems, quick meal swipes at Dunkin and efficient Med23 lines. Coffee and donuts are no longer readily available for those running to early morning lectures or looking for a quick bite between classes and are now requiring a mobile order placement in advance. Single serving pastas and sandwiches have replaced the straightforward easy-to-customize Mediterranean rice bowls, creating a crowd of students standing idly by waiting for their order on one end and pressuring workers on a time crunch on the other. Though there is much to appreciate about the food at Case Western Reserve University, it evidently has not been perfect.

Of course, this is my own perspective of things. There may be others who are delighted with these changes and happy to say goodbye to the old ways. People new to the school may not find anything wrong with how our dining options operate at all. And don’t get me wrong—I was quite fond of the old Med23 bowls, but I do also enjoy the pesto pasta they’re serving now.

In actuality, my issue isn’t that the food itself has been downgraded. My frustration comes from the lack of communication about all of the changes to campus eats. It almost feels as though the crepes and gelato reveal was meant as a distraction from the less positive updates to the food in Tinkham Veale University Center. I don’t know the reasoning behind not mentioning everything when announcing dining updates, but I, and probably many others, would have appreciated more transparency in the matter.

To be fair, I’m probably not the first to complain about things being different, and I’m definitely not going to be the last. I’m sure there are things I love about food at CWRU that a former student may have hated when they were first implemented. As the student body shifts, so do schoolwide eating preferences and, consequently, the meals served around campus. At the end of the day, people are going to have opinions. Yet, the world will continue to spin (or the school will continue to run, in this case). Nothing is permanent, especially not food.

Well, if it isn’t actually that deep, why even bring this up in the first place?

Maybe it’s that I’m blinded by nostalgia. There’s no logical reason for me to have such a strong attachment to Med23 rice bowls, except that they became a staple in my first year of college. Essentially, in terms of the life I began when I started at CWRU, I grew up with those rice bowls. It sounds silly to be so passionate about school food, but I think it isn’t too different from being upset at the retirement of a musical artist you listened to as a kid or the shutdown of your childhood amusement park.

I admit that my “conflict” with CWRU dining is entirely one-sided and completely avoidable. I also acknowledge that I have the power to resolve it. I see two solutions: I somehow take control of food options myself, or I try to adjust to the new system as best as I can. One of these is much more easily attainable, if I can just keep an open mind … and an open stomach.