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Universities do little to advance healthy lifestyles for students

Paul Dumitru

Universities in Bucharest do little or nothing to promote a healthy lifestyle among their students. They do not offer many healthy food choices, do not engage in anti-smoking or drinking campaigns and do not require students to take gym or exercise.

Most university cafeterias are bursting with students at lunch time, but the menus are not very diverse. Students choose to go to them because the food is relatively cheap and the taste more than acceptable.

“For a cafeteria, the services are good. I like the food very much. It’s tasty and it looks good”, said Florin Bratu, an Electronics Faculty student.



What seems to concern students most is hygiene. Many cafeterias are old and the buildings do not provide an appropriate environment for healthy cooking. Sometimes, the dishes are not washed well enough and the personnel does not serve customers in the required manner.

“They should be more careful with the hygiene. This is indeed a problem,” said Alexandru Niţulescu, also a student at the Electronics Faculty. “Those who serve should use special gloves and wear caps or something, in order to protect the food from bacteria and hair.”

The appearance of our cafeterias reflects the universities’ lack of funds. Most of the students we interviewed believe that the universities should take responsibility for student restaurants, considering that they own them. Ioana Savu, director at the cafeteria of the Architecture University Ion Mincu said, “the Rector is the one who checks if everything is well done. He is the one who comes regularly and makes sure that the services we provide are good.”

In our examination, we did not find any cafeteria that posts the ingredients they use in cooking, in order to provide information for students with allergies. The only information is the menu of the day. “I don`t think this is such an important thing. The menu tells you everything you need to know. Maybe we will think about it for the future”, said Iancu Bozu, manager of the Law Faculty cafeteria.

Another issue that the cafeterias do not recognize is the need to offer special food for vegetarians and diabetics. In most student restaurants, there are no special dishes for them and no natural juices.

“We keep the condiments separately. And if someone doesn’t want to eat meat, he can order only the side dishes,” said Bozu. “We do have vegetarian food in the fasting periods of the year. Thus, religious students can chose from mushrooms, spinach, pea, french fries and so on,” he added.

Most students believe universities should promote anti-smoking and drinking program. Students all over the world drink too much. A Duke University report in the United States found that 20 percent of male students had 10 or more drinks at least once during a two-week period. A study of the drinking habits of Romanian students would likely yield a similar result.

When it comes to smoking, Romanian students would undoubtedly outnumber their American counterparts. In many cafeterias and in the halls of the faculties, smoking students overwhelmingly pollute public spaces, ignoring the “no smoking” signs.

In Europe, more than 70,000 people die of secondhand smoke each year, according to the British Medical Association. In Britain alone, 30 die every day.

“In the Academy for Economic Studies faculties it is forbidden to smoke. Our nutrition centers do restrict smoking,” said Dorina Crişan, general director in the Academy’s administration. “There are 20 student associations in the AES, which strive to manage anti-smoking and drinking programs”, she added.

Universities do not provide appropriate physical exercise programs or classes either. If students do not make up their minds whether to go to sport classes at the beginning of every academic year, they lose their chance to benefit from technical or training assistance for the rest of the year.

Moreover, in some faculties, students must pay to take optional gym classes. “I did not choose to go to physical exercise classes at the right time, and now, if I want to play basket ball, I have no place to go,” said Alexandru Bogdan, a Polytechnic student. “I don`t have enough time to go to a gym class every week, so I cannot go at all, because of their policy.”

Ultimul număr tipărit (mai 2007, format PDF):