Do you know that Amherst has only one dining hall, Valentine Hall? More lovingly known as Val by the Amherst community, Valentine Hall is where most students stop for meals. Whenever my friends ask if I’m going to lunch/dinner, I know right away that they are asking whether I will be at Val. After all, it’s our only dining hall.
It does not mean that Val is our only dining option. Besides Val, Amherst also has Grab-n-Go, a takeout-only lunch option, at Keefe Campus Center and two Café at the Science Center and Frost Library. However, Val is the only location on campus that serves traditional full meals and features a variety of food/drink bars. It also offers Late Night, which is basically snacks served after 9 PM, five days a week.
I never questioned the fact that Val is Amherst’s only dining hall until I visited my friend at Smith College, one of our sister schools in the Five College Consortium. Although Smith is comparable in size to Amherst, it has a total of 15 dining locations, including seven dining halls! I tried looking into other schools that my friends attend, and it turned out that they all have more than just one dining hall. I never thought having just one dining hall was such a “special” thing.
While many, including my past self, would cite this as a drawback of Amherst, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of having a single dining hall.
Because Val is our one and only dining hall, everyone comes here! It’s not an understatement for me to say that Val is where most of my social life takes place outside of classes and clubs. An average Val visit often goes like this: I walk in. I see a friend. We say hi. We grab meals. We sit together. We talk! As simple as that. We do not have to make plans to hang out with each other in advance. Val is our plan. It brings us together. If Amherst had multiple dining halls, it would not be as easy for me to stumble upon my friends every day like this.
Not to mention, since most people come to Val, it’s convenient for student organizations and offices to set up booths outside of Val to advertise their events. Val’s entrance is also full of posters. Personally, I’d say that Val has one of the most comprehensive collections of posters on campus. It’s where I learn about a lot of events. If Amherst had more than just one dining hall, it would not be as convenient for me to learn about everything going on at once.
Still, as Amherst is in the process of constructing the new Student Center and Dining Commons, soon, Val will no longer be our one and only dining hall. However, until that happens, I’ll keep enjoying all that Val offers. After all, isn’t it such a special thing to have just one dining hall?