Let’s talk about the newly designed cafeteria. I mean, the newly designed “cafe”. With the redesign, also came a new name.There are now slick new food lines, the air is cleaner, and even a new brand of pizza. Yes it’s nice, and yes it looks more appealing, but is it really going to have students buying more food as hoped? Last year, the cafeteria was operating at a loss, so it would take a pretty big increase in sales to make the new redesign worth it. The design aimed to have more students sitting in the cafeteria, but without a major change to the food being served, I’m not sure how food sales can increase. Although the new design is trendy and more college-esque, it lost seating. The I’m-not-so-sure-what-blue-this-is blue benches are now gone, but instead of an eating sanctuary, we’ve been given a fight to the death seating arrangement. The hightops only seat eight, there are tables for two with seats that can’t move (seriously, who’s going on a date to the cafeteria?), and don’t get me started on the booths. At least the high tops have outlets to charge your phone. Oh wait, they don’t work. Since one of the assigned seating areas for middle schoolers is the cafeteria, everyone is jumbled up into one area that is bursting at capacity. This capacity is accompanied by all the sights, sounds, and yes even smells, that accompany a massive room filled to the brim with hungry middle schoolers. To add to the “this is my seat” angst, the juniors and seniors no longer have specialty seating anywhere. Last year, a similar predicament occurred with the addition of Power Hour when underclassmen were allowed to sit under the pavilion. The combination of Power Hour and the new cafeteria design created a perfect storm for seating to become chaos. Rumours excitedly spread before school that the new cafeteria would be the holy grail of the junior-senior experience, but tough luck. The class of 2018 yet again being denied the same privileges that classes before them received. At least Wednesdays split up the amount of people at lunch, but even at half the usual number of students seating is still hard to come by. Oh, and if you were hoping to heat up your mom’s favorite lasagna, nice try. As part of the out with the old movement, the microwaves also went. At least no one has to smell burnt popcorn anymore.