Val Etiquette: Go All the Way Down

I love Amherst College dearly. I wouldn’t want to be at any other institution. I have the most fascinating conversations with friends, my professors are incredibly kind and passionate, and the campus is incredibly beautiful throughout all the seasons. So, so much to enjoy at this college. While my love for Amherst is endless, there’s been one small, negative aspect that has bugged me for too long. As I enter my junior year at Amherst, one issue that continues to painfully annoy me stems from our dear, underrated Valentine Dining Hall — Val. 

There are plenty of things to complain about when walking into Val. Many lament the long lines, the lack of seating during peak hours, and the unvaried food selection. I can live with these issues, which should hopefully be resolved when the new dining hall and student center are constructed next summer. My Val complaint, though, stems from an issue that I believe the student body has complete control over. 

Imagine this: You’re finishing a chat with friends as you eat whatever Val had on the menu that day, and eventually walk to the front room to clean your plate. As you walk over to the rotating dish drop-off, you’re listening to your friend’s latest hot take when suddenly — bam! You’re stopped in your tracks because the person in front of you decided to drop their dishes off at the closest tray. Now, a small line is beginning to form behind you because you decided not to go around them, opting to wait for them to finish instead. Maybe you did decide to walk around them, but as you try to go back into Val to grab your stuff, it ends up just creating more traffic. It’s a pain, it’s a time waster, and it’s just plain annoying. All because someone didn’t walk all the way down to drop off their dishes. 

Maybe you want to go to the earliest spot because it’s technically the fastest way to drop off your dishes. It seems like the best course of action because you take fewer steps to drop off the dishes, but imagine you’re the person stuck behind you. You’ll either cause that person to waste their valuable time or force them to walk around you, likely creating traffic for you when you try to leave or get back into Val. Every school year, regardless of class year, so many people choose the “quickest” way to drop off their dishes, which completely inconveniences everyone, and it’s wholly selfish. 

My message here is not to call out those who don’t go all the way down for being “selfish,” far from it. I understand that most people don’t consider the ramifications of choosing the “quickest” way. We’re all probably stressed about classes, extracurriculars, and all sorts of commitments, and don’t think twice about where we drop off our dishes in Val. I get it, I do, but we should ensure our individual issues and worries don’t keep us from upholding positive community norms. That point extends beyond Val dishes, but hey, we’ve got to start somewhere, right? Hopefully, this year, we can get into the habit of going all the way down to the end of the conveyor belt to drop off our dishes, whether it’s busy in Val or completely empty.

While I know that we have an amazing student body who are capable of great things across so many fields, old habits die hard for everyone. I sometimes catch myself going to the left side to drop off my dishes, but I still keep trying to train myself to go all the way down. I’m begging you all to consider embracing the communal approach. It may feel counterintuitive to go all the way down the line for the Val dish drop-off, but it is the best option to save time and anguish for everyone involved. At the very least, consider going all the way down during the busiest Val moments. It’s like holding doors for each other, not leaving trash around campus, and cleaning the equipment at the gym — another one of the little things we do that remind us that we respect and appreciate one another. 

So please, consider going all the way down to drop off your dishes in Val. That’s ten small steps for us, one giant leap for Amherst College. Changing the culture starts with us, and why not start small?