Salt and Pepper Shakers Removed From Dining Hall

The average table at the dining center in Walnut Hall is usually stocked with several napkin dispensers and salt and pepper shakers.  Lately, however, many students have been noticing the absence of salt and pepper from their tables during lunch and dinner.  Where did the seasonings go?  Why were they removed from the tables, and how long will they be gone? 

The motive behind the disappearance of the salt and pepper is a simple one; patrons eating at the dining hall were tampering with the shakers, causing them to spill out and make a mess.  Students were spinning coins and slamming down the plastic shakers on top of them, causing the bottoms to split so that their contents would spill out the next time they were lifted up.

“We’re getting tired of cleaning up after them,” said Kori Rosnow, a cashier at the front entrance of the dining hall.

There have been many incidents like this in the past.  The most recent, according to John Noponen, the location manager of the dining facility, was the splattering of hot sauce across the windows.

“We’ve had all sorts of different inventions,” said Noponen.

It is the job of the dining hall staff to keep the dining facility as clean as possible.  A spill here or there isn’t much of a big deal, but the incidents with the salt and pepper were happening with far too much frequency and were becoming a hassle for the dining hall staff to be constantly dealing with.  The decision to pull the shakers from the tables was made two weeks ago by Rosnow and the other cashiers, along with Noponen.

The salt and pepper will be returned in a week or so.  The intention was only to remove the shakers for three or four weeks as a sort of precaution and then return them.  Should the incidents continue, they will presumably be removed again.