Coming to a new town and a new university constitutes a lot. Yes the parties and the new people but also a new found loneliness and detachment. We tend to bury our lack of comfort into bags and bags of food, and then we acquire what has come to be known as “first year spread syndrome”-probably something the ladies are more attuned to. Gaining weight is often a short term issue, but for some more than others, this syndrome as it were tends to perpetuate itself through second, third and even fourth year. When living in res, the dining hall is not to helpful in this regard either. Its mass produced, oil induced foods can’t be that healthy either.
No more eggs
The point of this story was to try and understand why the university has completely cut out all hot meals from breakfast and limited the cereal intake for its students, since fees have increased significantly. (Read the Dispatch article here)
I have no idea whether the decrease in breakfast portions is an attempt on the universities part to assist students in this regard but it is sure as hell creating a lot of controversy all around.
Gathering the Info
Affected Students did not shy away from the camera; they were infuriated and felt that their grievances needed to be heard. In this case it was extremely easy to get comments from them. Finding an authoritative comment from one of the university officials was a bit tricky. We attempted to contact Mrs. Jay Pillay, Head of the Catering Department, who unfortunately did not respond to our emails. The SRC then commented in this regard and were very much for the breakfast cut, explaining that it was for this reason our fees have not increased by a larger proportion.
According to a Cape Town business man, food prices have dropped since last year. Obviously inaccessible for the news package, an economics student would have worked as well but time was limited. This would have illustrated to the viewers the reason behind saving costs.
The Footage
We came into a bit of trouble when shooting in the dining hall. According to Mrs. Pillay, we would have to go through the ethics board to film inside any dining hall. Regardless, she gave us permission provided that it was not to be broadcast on any major television station. In the course of researching this story, the university made a decision to add an egg and yoghurt to the menu in alternate days. We were unsuccessful in getting any real reason or information concerning the funds for the introduction of the egg and yoghurt.
In terms of shooting, there are always those random people walking by trying to be on camera. We experienced a lot of those whilst shooting. Both interviewee’s and reporters for that matter are nervous being on camera for the first time. Therefore, the bloopers that come about make the story all the more interesting…Check them out below