We are supposed to be a student body chasing after the good, the true and the beautiful. This decadent behavior shows that the standards we make for ourselves are crumbling.
By Kyrie Reitz · Contributing Writer
Perhaps this article caught your eye because you watched the “Stealing from Hicks” skit in this year’s Orientation Board Off Broadway, or maybe you have stood behind a group raiding everything in Hicks Market before you get a chance to choose your “Pick 3” on-the-go meal.
In Hicks Market, the Pick 3 program is a way to grab a meal on the go by selecting one of the designated entrees, sides and drinks in Hicks Market and MAP Mart. Students often avoid the official options by picking something undesignated, essentially stealing the item.
Before I leap into criticizing this “cultural norm,” I must admit I felt the temptation to steal too. Funnily enough, it was the aforementioned OBOB skit (and some of my friends) that convinced me to change my ways, and I hope to provide a case for why this cultural norm is a sign of Grover decline and why the thievery should stop.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines the verb “steal” as “to take something without the permission or knowledge of the owner and keep it.” In this case, students are permitted to pick from the designated snacks to count as a meal swipe.
Taking the undesignated snacks, and especially not paying or using a meal swipe at all, is stealing.
Some students defend snatching snacks by saying the Pick 3 meal is worth about $6, whereas a typical meal in the dining halls is worth about $13. Others say there is no difference between designated and undesignated snacks. Of course, peer pressure is also a factor.
That this peer pressure exists sheds light on a deeper issue. The problem is not just that students steal snacks, but that students normalize behavior they know is wrong. Why have we stooped so low as to steal food when one of our core values is excellence?
There is apathy toward stealing and a passivity to intervening. Some people don’t even have to justify their actions now — it’s just normal.
We are supposed to be a student body chasing after the good, the true and the beautiful. This decadent behavior shows that the standards we make for ourselves are crumbling. If we sincerely aim to hold ourselves to the highest standards, and if we truly hold God’s law as supreme, a debate on this matter should not exist.
If one really must justify stealing from Hicks Market in their mind, is it truly justifiable? And if one knows it is stealing, knows stealing is wrong and chooses to steal anyway, is that not a sign of a deeper spiritual issue?
If the fact that it is stealing does not persuade you, let me make a Biblical case. In Exodus 20, God speaks the Ten Commandments to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. One of the commandments regarding the love of our neighbors is, “You shall not steal” (NIV).
These Ten Commandments are Christian law. If you steal from Hicks Market, you break this God-given commandment. You are stealing from the college, and by extension, depriving options from those who rightfully pay for their snacks. You are imposing a financial cost on the college and, inevitably, on tuition-paying students.
Personally, I don’t like many of the limited options in Hicks Market, and I would like the Pick 3 program to monetarily equate to a dining hall meal swipe. However, I (or any other student) do not have the authority to override the system and subscribe to a different set of morals just for some late-night grub.
So, as students, are we doomed to forever choose between mediocre snacks and stealing? Not at all.
There are three ways we can change this chaotic cultural norm. First, we can encourage others not to fall into this peer-pressure trap of stealing (or even thinking it’s not stealing).
Second, we can go to the Student Government Association’s Food Feedback Forum and voice our suggestions instead of passively complaining.
Finally, we can thank God for all the bountiful gifts He has blessed us with and let this joy shine through us.
