Starving students master the art of mooching

By Maggie Beidelman

How long can you survive eating free food on campus at Santa Clara?

If you did the right amount of research, you could probably eat all year without paying a cent. Campus Dining Services and the Adobe Lodge cater on-campus events that offer free food for attendees just about every day.

One can greatly increase his or her chances of getting free food if he or she doesn't have class at noon, joins every campus club, makes friends in every Residential Learning Community and attends all those Benson Memorial Center Parlors lectures and annual events like Parents Weekend.

The free food moocher must be organized, dedicated and strict. What better coach to have than a hungry stomach and an empty wallet? It is even possible to have a fairly reasonable diet while eating for free on campus.

Attend the events "at Noon" for fresh sandwiches, water and dessert. Vegetarian options are also available. Save RLC events, such as Alpha's Monday snack break (located in the Graham courtyard) for the artery-clogging days of free pizza or Taco Bell.

Be open to options. You can't be picky when being a professional moocher. This doesn't mean you can't have culture, however. The Francophone (French) Club offers monthly "soirées" of French cheese and wine. The possibilities are practically endless.

To get you started on your free food quest, here is a list of options for where to find these satiating events:

Check the bulletin boards

Peruse the Benson bulletin boards -- upstairs and downstairs. Clubs and departments use these billboards to post upcoming meetings and events. The free-food factor is often mentioned as an incentive to attend the event (and what a good incentive it is).

AS weekly e-mail

Read Associated Students Vice President Bobby Philbrook's weekly e-mail, titled, "What's Going on this Week." This e-mail will give a list of every major event that's happening on campus that week, and which ones offer food. Remember to R.S.V.P. to the events that require it.

Club e-mail lists

Get on the e-mail list for every club on campus. Upcoming events listing free dinners and snacks will be delivered right to your lap on a weekly basis.

Find department events

Get your friends from different academic departments to forward their department's social gathering events to you. But remember to brush up on your engineering and women's and gender studies small talk.

Find alumni events

Make friends with an alum or five. Alumni events, which happen all the time, aren't just good for the food. How many groups of alumni do you see on campus who are actually sober?

Flip the page

Read the Calendar section of Scene in The Santa Clara; also read up on events at scu.edu/events.

Mooch off a freshman

Freshmen go overboard with the "Preferred" dining plan. Find a freshman who will share his or her dining points with you.

Finding the events can be challenging, but it is obviously well worth your time. The free-food-finder can save on hundreds of dollars per quarter.

Better than your typical library reception desk job, the free-food-finder will even become learned in a range of lecture topics and will be in the running for most popular person on campus as side effects of the position.

You'll be thankful for upcoming events to attend when the pocketbook starts to get skinny.

Contact Maggie Beidelman at mbeidelman@scu.edu.