To start the day, one of my favorite things to do is to have a cup of coffee with breakfast. While the caffeine-content does produce a burst of energy for groggy mornings, for me, coffee is more than just a way to ‘wake up.’ Coffee is a nugget of nostalgia that reminds me of early mornings in school, late nights with family and long talks with friends.

Some of my favorite memories are when my cousins and I would have dinner at my grandparents home in Long Island, New York. After an amazing Italian dinner – thanks to my grandmother’s cooking – coffee was always passed around. Family members would take turns walking in and out of the kitchen preparing their coffee, mixing in milk or creamer, tearing open sugar packets or simply just drinking it black. Coffee reminds me of my home and my family.

When first adjusting to Bucknell as a first-year, I sometimes found myself being homesick. But a small moment of relief was when I would grab a coffee from the cafeteria. While the quality of the coffee is often lackluster, the common taste of coffee across any bean lingered and settled my unrest. And it’s during every breakfast and dinner meal that a cup of coffee accompanies my food.

However, there is one critical grievance that I have with the cafeteria; when I enter and walk over to the coffee dispenser and reach for a mug to fill with coffee, they are filthy. And this is because of the ‘filth phenomenon’ at this university; when returning from any break, for the first two weeks Bucknellians can find sparkling white ceramic coffee cups. However, as time ticks on, the brown and black soot from other peoples’ coffee cup usage builds up. And this is not the result of staining the mug itself, but rather the lack of effort in cleaning the cup. Every morning, I sift through at least four different mugs in order to find a moderately clean one so that I can enjoy my coffee. 

This incident, however, is not isolated to coffee cups. Plates, forks, knives, spoons, bowls, fountain drink cups and mini dessert plates all fall victim to the filth phenomenon. It’s not uncommon to find crusted sauces on plates, strange smut on utensils or “flavor flecks” on drinking cups. For the money spent at this institution, the least we can ask for is that our dishes and utensils that we eat with are clean. In addition, is it not a health hazard that there could be bacteria and pathogens left over on dishes and utensils which could spread illness to other Bucknellians? Maybe this is a contributing factor to the rapid spread of the infamous “Bucknell Plague.”

And I know that the cafeteria workers work hard, to which I thank them all, and I don’t think it’s an error on their behalf but a failure of the administration and/or the cafeteria managers to check on the quality of our dishes and utensils. Why is this an issue that is going so long unchecked? All I ask is that we clean the muck off of our coffee cups so that each Bucknellian can enjoy their coffee in peace.