Remember the Towers Inn? Most students considered it the best place to eat on campus. You could sit down, have a waitress or waiter, and actually have a nice meal. The only competition Towers had was the Silver River Cafe, another sit-down, non-cafeteria-style eatery on campus.

Then, not too long ago, a new competitor opened its doors: The Bowling Greenery. The Bowling Greenery is located on the second floor of the Union. It is much smaller than both Silver River Cafe and Towers Inn.

Things seemed to be going great for all three restaurants, and students were happy. Now, enter the evil FlexFund. FlexFunds were instituted at the beginning of this semester for the first time. There were many complaints due to the limitations it put on the amount of money that a student could spend at eateries in the Union.

Along with the institution of FlexFunds, Dining Services decided to close the doors on the Towers Inn and the Silver River Cafe in order to save some desperately needed cash. Both the decision to shutdown Towers and Silver River and the institution of FlexFunds was a tactic to get students to eat at other places on campus, rather than spend all of their money at the Union eateries.

Now, the sit-down restaurants on campus were always more expensive, and the Bowling Greenery was no exception. With the FlexFund policy in effect, students could only eat at the Union a few times, especially if they ate at the Greenery. Once their FlexFunds were gone, students couldn’t eat at the Greenery and had no other sit-down style restaurant to turn to.

As a result, students no longer wanted to eat at the Greenery because their FlexFunds would be eaten up too quickly. Dining Services responded, much to the joy of some students we are sure, by re-opening the Towers Inn, however, it will be under a different name.

The decision to re-open Towers Inn is definitely one of the better decisions Dining Services has made this semester. Beginning Jan. 20, at 5 p.m., students will have the choice to go to the restaurant in Offenhauer Towers or the Bowling Greenery.

So, in at least one way, FlexFunds failed. It didn’t draw more students to the Union. In fact, it consequently deterred students from the Union eateries —- at least from the Bowling Greenery. Dining Services has been taking a lot of criticism for FlexFunds, and rightfully so. Our only hope is that Dining Services will continue its recent trend of adhering to what the students would like to see done.