The first day back from the break is the hardest, and January 6, 2025 was no exception. On that day, already exhausted by my 12 new assignments and the cold, I stopped by the WCC for a pick-me-up, only to be confronted by a sign that read, “From Jan 6th all students must pay for tea and coffee.”
My outrage was palpable, and so was that of my fellow students: respondents to the Tatler poll had many choice words, ranging from “preposterous” to one respondent declaring that students must stage a Boston Tea Party-style revolt by “dumping the tea into the sound.”
While this may seem dramatic, these students are rightfully upset — SAGE’s decision to start charging for coffee and tea doesn’t just affect the over-caffeinated masses, but the entire student body, and predicts a bleak future in the cards (or tea leaves) of future Lakesiders.
To understand the situation better, we need to return to early 2024, when Lakeside officially announced that it would be switching to SAGE Dining Services. This was met with mixed reactions due to the fact that it required all students to pay a meal fee of $1,600, regardless of whether or not they planned on actually eating the food from school. Students were also quick to do the math, and came to the conclusion that each meal averaged to about $10, an increase from the previous $7 cost for the entree.
Personally, however, SAGE didn’t seem that bad. There seemed to be many valid reasons for switching to a new system, from more students on financial aid being able to afford lunch to the newfound variety of foods the school could offer. And then the new school year started, and it seemed I was being proven right: coffee, tea, and hot chocolate were all free under the new system, down from the previous price of $2.50 per cup! Not only that, but SAGE had also installed other beverage machines, such as a lemonade dispenser, a milk machine and on occasion, Vietnamese iced coffee. Even with all of the kinks, such as the long lunch lines, it seemed that ultimately this system had a greater net positive impact than before.
The buildup to the drink removal started slow. First, the hot cocoa machine, which SAGE had fitted to include options of cappuccino and chai, disappeared. After asking around, my panic was assuaged upon hearing through the grapevine that the machine was going through routine repairs. But it never came back, even after SAGE transitioned to their current cost model. In a similar vein, the quality of other drinks have also been dropping — my sparkling water comes out as flat more often than not, and I have seen the lemonade dispensers remain empty for consecutive days in a row.
And this is where SAGE’s problems lie. Ultimately, it seems the extravagant array of drinks they offered was unsustainable, leading the program to shut it down. A Tatler poll respondent said it best: “it’s not about the cost, it’s about the principle.” SAGE had made a commitment to making the coffee, tea, and hot cocoa free, and on their own they had decided to expand the drink selection. Students had no say in the decision to add to the menu or to remove the hot beverages, and the resulting decision to charge for drinks seems like an attempt to prop up their bloated menu. And while the future looks relatively stable, what’s to stop SAGE from making additional major changes?
Some might call this needlessly dramatic, which is fair. It’s also true that more and more people, at least from my perspective, have started to get coffee and tea for free, which could have caused the price hikes. Before January 6, I often noticed that the WCC trash cans were littered with coffee cups, many still half-full. SAGE has taken steps to be waste-friendly, according to a January Tatler article, which could also explain the new costs. And the coffee and tea prices are down a dollar per cup from last year, when all beverages needed to be purchased.
But there were (and still are) other solutions and refutations for those claims — SAGE could have instituted a reusable cup policy, encouraging the use of mugs while in the cafeteria, and ensuring that takeaway cups were used only when necessary. Even if a drink option needed to be removed, they could have consulted the student body on which beverage they enjoyed the least. And, as for any complaints about the cost, if each student is already paying $10 dollars a day regardless of whether or not they are eating there, the very least SAGE could do to ensure student satisfaction is to not charge them for drip coffee and 10 cent tea bags.
Things don’t have to remain the same, however. After a long time of the sparkling water not being carbonated, a few days ago when I went to check, someone had refilled it. And since SAGE is still in its baby stages, changes are potentially easier to make, if the student body truly desires it. All said, however, this entire incident leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
