Subway opened on St. Thomas University campus in December, and what seemed to be a good alternative for students has turned into something a lot complain about.
For third-year student Dylan Hackett, it’s the smell that irritates her the most.
“The entire building smells like Subway. Some people enjoy that but I don’t enjoy it at all … Immediately you walk in and that smell hits you, and then there’s this line right in front of the door you have to get through.”
Space is also an issue now in JDH. The new Subway caused a lot of trouble during the Clubs and Societies Fair earlier this semester.
“I appreciate having another food option on campus but if improvements like this are going to limit the space available for student events like the clubs and societies fair, more space has to be made available,” said third-year student Kaley Scott Etheridge.
Fourth-year student Trevor Watson is more optimistic about the new Subway.
“It definitely helps with the cafeteria line. It gives people more options. It might intrude on some of the things in JDH but I mean, it’s cutting down lines, which gets people to class faster,” he said. “As for people who use this place for their organizations, it’s a huge campus. Yes, this is the place that most people come, but they could work around it.”
The smell and the lack of space in JDH isn’t all that’s causing complaints about Subway. Recently, uproar has caused Subway to announce they will remove a chemical from their bread that is also found in yoga mats and shoe soles. In bread, it is used as a flour-bleaching agent and to make the dough easier to work with. Already banned in Europe, azodicarbonamide is being phased out in North America.
Hackett said this just reinforces why she doesn’t eat at Subway.
“I think the [news about the] chemical is funny because it coincided with the opening of the JDH Subway,” said Hackett. “I don’t think it’s something someone should be intaking. Even if you eat a ‘healthy’ sub at Subway, it’s not that healthy. People don’t think of things like preservatives, or sodium, or things like that. I think it’s a lot healthier than a lot of things, but it shouldn’t be pushed as the healthy option, which a lot of times it is.”
Etheridge said the new chemical found in the bread probably won’t stop him from eating at Subway.
“I have a lot of faith in the people who make decisions about what is safe and isn’t safe to eat,” he said. “It’s more of a ‘I’d rather they didn’t’ than ‘I’m vehemently against it.’ Food additives, even ones that don’t seem like food, are added to food all the time. It’s pretty much inescapable.”
