I am writing to agree with and add to Mark Byers’ Jan. 22 letter touting Coffman as a colossal disappointment, “Coffman Union is a disappointment.” Today, a fellow graduate student and I went there to check it out and get lunch.

The very first thing I noticed was the number of students sitting on the floor to eat their lunches. These people just purchased overpriced meals only to find out that Coffman now has no place to sit.

I then noticed how expensive all the food was. There was absolutely no quality in sight. For about $5.25 I got a small soda and an undercooked calzone made up of mostly air with a couple of pieces of rubbery pepperoni. For the same price I can get a salami sub, fries and soda at the Big 10 in about the same amount of time.

Upon visiting the game room I found that most of Coffman underground had become an unavailable computer lab. The game room is now crammed to one side of the building and the ping-pong tables are a thing of the past.

It looks as if the students’ concerns were ignored in renovating our union. No longer are there large open tables where large study groups can meet and get something to eat without worrying about being noisy as is the case in the library.

Instead, the University leased out chunks of that space that once belonged to students to the highest bidders. The U.S. Bank is a fine example. Our U Cards are TCF bank cards, yet the University officials did not take that into account.

It is a shame that so many students spent the last few years paying for something less than what it was and disgusting that there is no way to hold those responsible accountable.

Joseph Skinner

graduate student

physics