Last Monday students received an email addressing an issue on campus: a large number of plates missing from the dining hall and asking for their return.

Kristy Weiss, general manager for Culinart, the group that provides food and services on campus, sent out the email that stated the following:

“All, it is very important that you return ALL of the dining hall plates immediately. We started out this school year with over 1,000 plates and we have 47 left. We are not able to serve you properly if we do not have plates, utensils, cups available. Please bring these back ASAP. Please remember that the dining hall plates, silverware, cups, etc… are NOT permitted to leave the dining room.”

Weiss was contacted but did not respond.

Some students are wondering how that many plates could be lost so quickly and why a statement regarding the issue was not sent out sooner.

“I get annoyed because it is a huge ordeal to try to find something I can put my food on every day,” Riley Beight, a freshman sports, arts, and entertainment management major, said. “I am also shocked that they did not say anything until there were only 47 left. Like how did they not realize and say something like a couple hundred plates ago?”

The lack of plates has presented problems for frequent dining hall goers and has sparked some concern for less frequent visitors.

Riley Beight, freshman sports, arts, and entertainment management major, who visits the dining hall for dinner and “sometimes” for lunch has noticed the lack of plates “for quite a while.”

“Every time I go to the dining hall it feels like there are only cardboard containers or paper plates now to eat from,” Beight said. “They are also always out of plates so I would have to use bowls or smaller plates for my full meal.”

Beight also said that this problem is more than just a lack of plates.

“They are also always out of cups, so we have to use coffee cups instead,” Beight said.

In contrast, Douglas Baldeo, freshman dance with a jazz concentration major, who “rarely” goes to the dining hall, still finds the situation “crazy.”

“I haven’t noticed a lack of plates because I don’t go [to the dining hall often], but this is just so crazy,” Baldeo said. “The missing flyers everywhere are so funny.”

Ellie Keating, sophomore theater production major, finds the missing plates “very odd.” Keating is a self described frequent dining hall goer and noticed the lack of plates “a little bit before the email was sent out.”

“I think it’s an odd thing to hear and a little comedic,” Keating said. “I wonder why they decided to send an email out when there were only 47 left out of 1000. Why not send an email out when they had 500 left or at least 100?”

Kassady Burke, sophomore behavioral sciences major, also finds the situation “funny” but the timing “not right.”

“I live in Boulevard now, so I never go to the dining hall, but it didn’t surprise me to hear that so many plates were missing,” Burke said. “It just seems like a very PPU thing, but the email for sure should have been sent out earlier. I just can’t see the dining hall people not noticing there was a problem until there were only 47 plates left.”

The dining hall asks that if anyone has any plates to please return them as soon as possible.