Similar to many other Fordham students, I was overwhelmingly delighted — and rather shocked — to hear that the university’s dining services were adding a new option to our collection of Lincoln Center culinary choices:Rolls and Bowls. We hadn’t even made it through the first week of school before I dragged my friends across campus to stock up on our own ‘rolls’ and ‘bowls’ for the next month or so.
Unfortunately, we discovered that Fordham Dining had given this store an upsettingly misleading title. Maybe it’s just me, but as a New York City college student, the first items that came to mind when I heard the words “rolls” and “bowls” were not sushi and poké. Usually, I’ll pick up some of my own rolls from this really sketchy guy in Times Square who sells them for $5, and I got my bowl at a vintage boutique in Williamsburg run by a guy named Blaze. However, I was out of rolls and I’d tragically dropped my bowl down eight flights of stairs in the Leon Lowenstein Center, so I was in a pinch and figured this new place — that takes my official Fordham declining balance, no less — would be a great option.
Additionally, this new business would replace the rather infamous SVK Kitchen — which, in addition to having an unexciting selection of food options, always bothered me because the “K” in “SVK” already stood for “Kitchen.,” So, calling it SVK Kitchen meant you were just calling it “Sous Vide Kitchen Kitchen.”
Thus, I was thrilled to learn about the change of pace that would come with the new establishment.
You can imagine my extreme disappointment when we walked in and realized that there was not a single cheap pre-roll or novelty glass smoking bowl (one with a ram’s head for the bowl itself, maybe?!) in sight. Instead, some nice employees were asking what flavor bubble tea I wanted.
Leaving embarrassed and deceived, I did not feel like my “cura personalis” was being taken into account in this situation. Look, maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s high time that Fordham stops discriminating against people for whom ‘roll’ is a habitual verb and not a piece of raw fish wrapped up in seaweed.
We’re already a little confused and out of it all the time, so this kind of ambiguous branding feels prejudiced. Fordham, please do better.
