I wake up every morning to go to the Underground around 10:30 to get the sunrise combo – a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit with tater tots – before I go to class at 11:30. Although the place almost always never fails to disappoint me, I had the worst experience ever with the Underground last week.

I was standing in line chatting with Assistant Professor of Philosophy Vance Ricks, my FYE teacher. who was in front of me, as I heard the cashier tell someone that their ID card was saying they aren’t on the meal plan. This doesn’t faze me much; I figure they used up their meal plan or something.

However, when the next guy in line, my boyfriend, whom I was meeting there, had trouble with his card and was told he had to go to Bauman to fix it, I became slightly worried.

It was 10:45 a.m. and the Underground stops selling breakfast at 11. What if my card was also denied? I was in no mood to walk; I can’t do that when I’m hungry.

He left in a huff to Bauman.

The next guy in line also left annoyed.

Vance paid in cash for two bottles of organic milk.

Then it was my turn. I ordered, pretending the lady wasn’t going to shoot my hopes of breakfast down with the impending swipe of the card and the error message from the computer.

It happened though, and so I took a stand and told her that obviously there must be something wrong with the computers or the system, it’s not the fault of our cards, therefore it is not the students responsibility to fix it.

She told me she understands my point but her boss told her that if the cards aren’t working according to the computers, she couldn’t serve the cardholders.

I countered: “Well you know I am on the meal plan, I am a freshman and I have to be. Plus I come in here practically every morning.”

She responded with a slight attitude telling me that if she wrote down my number to punch it in later since she knows I’m on the meal plan, she would have to do that for everybody and some people might lie about being on the meal plan.

With that I leave and go outside where I see my boyfriend coming back from Bauman. He tells me that IT&S told everyone to go to New Garden hall to fix their cards.

Now, why employees of the school are trying to make students go “fix” their cards when it is an issue of the computers is unbeknownst to me. We were still hungry though and went to the Cafeteria to eat and complain.

Someone should actively be trying to fix this problem, but we did not see this occurring. There is no good reason why an employee who recognizes a problem should not be able to call her boss to fix the issue or make a decision.

The way she was running the Underground was plain stupid. People were in line, expecting to use their cards to order food. The cashier did not make a decision to tell the group of people as a whole that cards were not scanning correctly but instead made them all waste their time in line.

Why would someone not put up a sign at this point letting customers know the situation, or perhaps close it altogether in order to repair the computer scanning process?

Because the cashier kept telling me her boss told her to do just what she was doing it makes me wonder why the lower-level Sodexho employees are not allowed to make any minor decisions based on their own best judgment.

I have worked as a cashier for a step-above-fast-food restaurant, and when things went wrong, I did my best to fix the problem myself. I certainly did not use the cop-out of saying, “oh sorry it isn’t my fault; I can only do what my manager tells me to.”

Managers can only do so much, and they should be able to rely on their employees to help them out and act in the best interest of their business.

The Sodexho cashier did not do this. Is this her own fault, or her manager’s?

I do not know and probably never will. All I know is that there is a sign apologizing for the inconveniences of last week sitting on the counter.

Those are only mere typed words from Sodexho. They need to take action in providing the students who pay a whole lot of money for their disgusting food (besides the amazing sunrise combo) by making some major improvements.