We should have ketchup dispensers at L3.

A popular option for dinner other than Leutner Commons is Lower Level Leutner Grill, more commonly known as L3. Many of us go there every night for a tasty pizza or burger. However there is one problem with their food service that warrants discussion. If one goes to the condiments section after picking up food, one should right away notice that the ketchup is open. The open bowl, along with all the other open condiments, leaves the ketchup ripe for contamination. Anyone could accidentally sneeze into the bowl, or germs from the air could easily dirty the ketchup. If this is a trivial problem and the solution is simple, then why has it not been fixed yet?

When ketchup is exposed in the open, a variety of mold and diseases can attach themselves to the ketchup. If you keep something under a lid, it reduces the chance of airborne diseases colonizing on the ketchup. Diseases such as salmonella, bacteria and fungus spores have a high chance of growing on the ketchup.

So how much is it to buy a ketchup dispenser? You can buy a ketchup bottle dispenser for as little as 68 cents. Others, such as the stainless steel ketchup dispensers in Leutner, can cost closer to $150, but one of that quality is not necessary. You can also receive a free ketchup dispenser from Heinz if you are partnered with them as your ketchup provider. In comparison to what L3 spends on health and sanitation, the solution to this problem is very cheap, and it does not makes sense to tarnish everything else they do to clean with this small issue.

Raising this issue of the ketchup dispenser is not meant as an attack on the administration of either Case Western Reserve University or Bon Appétit. Rather it is intended to represent how many small issues regarding student life can be resolved with common sense solutions we all agree on. One could argue and probably be right that ketchup dispensers are insignificant and that there are much other larger problems at work, but everything is representative of the university, and if students can become more active and conscious of that fact, we will become more self-critical of every little shortcoming we allow to occur. If we, as a student body, can get to a point where we have a problem with something as small as the lack of a ketchup dispenser, we will have created a culture that is optimal for the rapid progression and improvement of this great institution.

Ari Lewis is a sophomore and Co-Founder of Koalah, a gaming startup. Gabriel Murcia is a sophomore, member of Varsity Tennis Team and founder of Blue CWRU.