IU: home of Ho-Ho's, pies

IU has ranked fourth on a list of the 10 most vegetarian-friendly colleges in the U.S., compiled by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The decision was made based on campus meal offerings and disregarded any vegan and vegetarian options available off-campus in Bloomington. \nWhile Residential Programs and Services is to be commended for providing the options that made IU place fourth, there are a great many improvements RPS could make to help IU place even higher next year. \nFor example, it seems that the PETA ranking was based more on the absence of meat than the presence of vegetables. Most non-meat offerings at the residence halls consist of carbohydrates. Except at Collins, vegetables are only offered as a side dish, and there is often only one vegetable side dish offered per meal. If students don't want the green beans offered at the Wright food court Sbarro's, there aren't any other vegetable options, such as steamed carrots or broccoli, for them to choose from. \nLast week, extended eating options were presented at Read Center's Hoosier Cafe after students complained that the cafe served nothing but fried chicken and macaroni and cheese every day. The cafe also serves a single vegetable side dish. After the complaints, the Cafe installed a Hostess stand to provide more variety. Vegetarian students can now have Ho-Ho's, Twinkies and cherry pies along with their macaroni. \nSimply leaving meat out of a dish doesn't make it healthy. While the service at Collins may be exceptional when it comes to serving vegetarian students, the rest of campus has a lot to learn about being vegetarian-friendly. Simply refraining from serving meat is not enough. Instead of only offering a single vegetable side dish, a truly vegetarian-friendly campus might provide several vegetable side dishes to choose from, or even a completely vegetarian main dish. \nIt's admirable that IU has doen enough to place fourth on PETA's list. But there is a great deal more that could be done to the current campus meal system to place IU even higher on the list. The University will not be an effective example to follow until RPS provides fewer carbohydrates and more vegetables.\nStaff vote: 8 - 1 - 0\nyes - no - abstain