Story and Illustration By Suhani Patel
M&M staffer
As the noon bus pulls up on Sanford Drive, some 45 hungry, tired, heat-stricken Duke TIP students step into the sweltering Georgia sun. At the same time, a block away, another 60 6-year-old gymnast campers are walking from their long, strenuous practice at the Suzanne Yoculan Gymnastics Center. Both groups head to Snelling dining hall.
The front few kids from both groups see each other and the race is on. Faster and faster the paces of both groups quicken and the tension thickens. The children sprint to the crosswalks where they would eagerly wait for the oncoming traffic to pass, so they can get to the air-conditioned hall of feasts that awaits them. The last truck has just driven past and the TIPsters are on the run, but the cheerleaders are small and fast. Who will get in first?
This was a common scene June 7-27 as Duke TIP students at the University of Georgia battled other campers, new students and their parents, and other visitors for a place in line at several campus dining halls. Whether it was jumping or tumbling over the tiny gymnasts at Snelling, elbowing parents at the Summit or being outmuscled by large football players at Bolton, the fight for food was an integral battle of the camp wars.
Due to numerous camps being held at the same time, competition ensued between camps regarding the dining facilities, which become an immense annoyance to many TIP students.
“I find it really annoying when those tiny, little gymnasts or those ginormous football players flood our eating area,” said agitated TIPster Katie Clardy, 13, from Alabama. She is a student in the Robotics course which eats lunch daily at Snelling.
The University of Georgia houses several camps varying from golf to music, from band to football, and from cheerleading to gymnastics and for the first time, our very own Duke TIP. All these camps have one thing in common: feeding their campers.
This is hard to accomplish sometimes because of the population of all the different groups and it even causes a big ruckus. For TIP students, we all have to eat breakfast at Snelling, then for lunch our meals are either served to us at Snelling or Summit, and for dinner we all eat at Bolton.
But TIPsters aren’t the only ones who eat our meals at these times.
This creates all sorts of scheduling problems for Duke TIP at UGA administrators. Recently, the on-site director of Duke’s UGA campus, Alex Pagnani, addressed the issue in his talk to the Media and Message class.
“When there is freshman orientation, there’ll be long lines… and when the football camps are there, those are wild nights,” said Pagnani. He also commented that, “The number of people and camps that are here for lunch [breakfast and dinner], we’ve definitely got to try to work with them over the course of the fall and the winter to find a better option for our students to have guaranteed easy-in to get their food, eat their food, and easy-out without so many camps fighting for the same food and resources.”
Staff has also been flustered by the changing times caused by the camp battles for food.
“I think it has been very frustrating… people at East Campus had to sit on the floor one day,” said Kristin Gravley, Teaching Assistant for the Media course. “We only have 35 minutes in the dining hall [and] we need for everyone to eat together and get in line. We are trying to beat [the other camps by asking] the dining services when we can come.”
To accommodate the campers currently residing at UGA, camp officials have made alterations to the dining schedules. Pagnani said, “There are definitely some timing issues we’ve worked on. We’ve juggled around lunch times 2 or 3 times.”
The timings have changed for many classes from the original time of noon to what is now the current time of 11:30 a.m. The changes have made a great difference.
Sam Park, 14, from Carrollton, Ga, a student in the Mock Trial class, ate lunch daily at the Summit at East Campus Village and often had to compete with orientation students and their parents. The TIPster said he's satisfied with the revised schedule.
“I personally appreciate the timing changes greatly ‘cause now I don’t have to fight my way through an army of little girls to get my sustenance everyday,” he said.
M&M staffer
As the noon bus pulls up on Sanford Drive, some 45 hungry, tired, heat-stricken Duke TIP students step into the sweltering Georgia sun. At the same time, a block away, another 60 6-year-old gymnast campers are walking from their long, strenuous practice at the Suzanne Yoculan Gymnastics Center. Both groups head to Snelling dining hall.
The front few kids from both groups see each other and the race is on. Faster and faster the paces of both groups quicken and the tension thickens. The children sprint to the crosswalks where they would eagerly wait for the oncoming traffic to pass, so they can get to the air-conditioned hall of feasts that awaits them. The last truck has just driven past and the TIPsters are on the run, but the cheerleaders are small and fast. Who will get in first?
This was a common scene June 7-27 as Duke TIP students at the University of Georgia battled other campers, new students and their parents, and other visitors for a place in line at several campus dining halls. Whether it was jumping or tumbling over the tiny gymnasts at Snelling, elbowing parents at the Summit or being outmuscled by large football players at Bolton, the fight for food was an integral battle of the camp wars.
Due to numerous camps being held at the same time, competition ensued between camps regarding the dining facilities, which become an immense annoyance to many TIP students.
“I find it really annoying when those tiny, little gymnasts or those ginormous football players flood our eating area,” said agitated TIPster Katie Clardy, 13, from Alabama. She is a student in the Robotics course which eats lunch daily at Snelling.
The University of Georgia houses several camps varying from golf to music, from band to football, and from cheerleading to gymnastics and for the first time, our very own Duke TIP. All these camps have one thing in common: feeding their campers.
This is hard to accomplish sometimes because of the population of all the different groups and it even causes a big ruckus. For TIP students, we all have to eat breakfast at Snelling, then for lunch our meals are either served to us at Snelling or Summit, and for dinner we all eat at Bolton.
But TIPsters aren’t the only ones who eat our meals at these times.
This creates all sorts of scheduling problems for Duke TIP at UGA administrators. Recently, the on-site director of Duke’s UGA campus, Alex Pagnani, addressed the issue in his talk to the Media and Message class.
“When there is freshman orientation, there’ll be long lines… and when the football camps are there, those are wild nights,” said Pagnani. He also commented that, “The number of people and camps that are here for lunch [breakfast and dinner], we’ve definitely got to try to work with them over the course of the fall and the winter to find a better option for our students to have guaranteed easy-in to get their food, eat their food, and easy-out without so many camps fighting for the same food and resources.”
Staff has also been flustered by the changing times caused by the camp battles for food.
“I think it has been very frustrating… people at East Campus had to sit on the floor one day,” said Kristin Gravley, Teaching Assistant for the Media course. “We only have 35 minutes in the dining hall [and] we need for everyone to eat together and get in line. We are trying to beat [the other camps by asking] the dining services when we can come.”
To accommodate the campers currently residing at UGA, camp officials have made alterations to the dining schedules. Pagnani said, “There are definitely some timing issues we’ve worked on. We’ve juggled around lunch times 2 or 3 times.”
The timings have changed for many classes from the original time of noon to what is now the current time of 11:30 a.m. The changes have made a great difference.
Sam Park, 14, from Carrollton, Ga, a student in the Mock Trial class, ate lunch daily at the Summit at East Campus Village and often had to compete with orientation students and their parents. The TIPster said he's satisfied with the revised schedule.
“I personally appreciate the timing changes greatly ‘cause now I don’t have to fight my way through an army of little girls to get my sustenance everyday,” he said.
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