Berkeley's right to be proud

To the Editor:

We, as Berkeleyites, would like to respond to Ms. Pai's editorial, "Berkeley serves up superiority" [YH, 9/17/99]. Our frustration is not about "waiting in a long line" to get into our own dining hall, it's about being crowded out for seats next to fellow Berkeleyites with whom we look forward to enjoying dinner. It's about a floor awash with trays, and a common room full of surplus diners. Considering these examples, Berkeley's not-so-stringent transfer policy (in comparison to other colleges in previous years) would seem justified.

Our frustration seems to be one that Ms. Pai understands, for although she characterizes Berkeley as just a "college cafeteria," she also acknowledges that she yearns for "a pleasant, centrally-located dining hall that lets [Branfordians] salvage some sense of college identity."

This was exactly our experience last year in the Swing Space, and the fact that Ms. Pai neglects to mention our shared circumstance is clearly a deliberate oversight on her part. If Berkeley is just an anonymous "college cafeteria" to Ms. Pai, why is she so intent on eating there? Part of our pride in the new Berkeley comes from a joy in the reinstitution of a space in which we again have a sense of our own identity; a space that is stable, rather than transient.

But we don't want to raise only quarrels: we would like to offer Ms. Pai some solutions. Although Berkeley may be centrally-located for Yale College in general, it is certainly not centrally-located for Swing Space residents. We might suggest that she do as Berkeleyites did last year and take advantage of the proximity of Morse, Ezra Stiles, and the Hall of Graduate Studies. This would save Ms. Pai from having to "dash across campus" and from "scrambling for a Berkeley host." Although Commons is closed only during Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sunday days, dinner at Commons on Sunday nights became a standard for most Berkeleyites last year. Also, the additional Flex dollars might be viewed as a privilege, freeing Branfordians up to enjoy dining out more often.

If we seem proud of our dining hall, it's because we are. And we're sure that Branford will feel the same way upon the completion of its college next year. If we seem like we want to enjoy our college and the unifying force that it provides, we do. So don't judge our exclusivity as such: it's pride, and we have a right to it.

—Rob Giampietro, BK '00
Carlos Gonzales, BK '01
Madhu Pocha, BK '01
Armando Valdés-Prieto, BK '01

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