If I had a nickel for every time I was served raw food at the Wildcat Den, I might be able to make back a decent chunk of the tuition money I’ve paid to fund the sorry excuse for a restaurant. 

I have been a student here for three and a half years now. The fact that this has been a problem since I was a freshman is appalling to me. I honestly don’t know if anyone has ever formally complained besides myself, but consider this a formal complaint on behalf of the student body. 

On Friday, Oct. 16 at 11:05 a.m.,  I ordered a Superior Burger on a “gluten-friendly bun” with no tomato. I got a notification from the GET app that my burger would be done at 11:20 a.m. I got to the Den around 11:15 a.m., and my burger was already sitting on the hot plate, waiting for me to pick it up, meaning my burger had to have been cooked in less than 10 minutes. 

As you can see in the photo above, my burger was completely raw in the middle. There was blood pooling in the container and most of my chips were completely soaked in it. 

I was disgusted to say the absolute least. 

I know not every person would consider this raw, but in my opinion, ground beef should not still be pink after you cook it. Additionally, I think it takes longer than 10 minutes for a burger to be fully cooked. I also think many people would also be put off by the pool of blood soaking everything on their plate. Maybe I’m wrong, but it definitely isn’t for me.

I don’t think it is much to ask when visiting any restaurant that the food be cooked all the way. There really is no excuse, at the end of the day, for serving a customer raw food. There are many ways to tell if meat is cooked all the way, and if nothing else, using a meat thermometer is very easy to do. 

Not only have I received undercooked burgers, I, and many others, have shared on social media how they received one or more raw chicken wings in their basket. It’s a running joke on campus at this point — everyone knows not to order the bone-in wings from the Den. 

Trust is very important when it comes to restaurants. The only on campus dining option that I feel I can actually trust at this point is Fieras. They have never done me wrong. 

I think the Den needs to rethink its priorities. Undercooked and raw meats can make someone extremely sick, and I think the university is generally very lucky that its students aren’t stupid enough to eat the raw wing in the basket. I don’t care if it takes a little longer for my food to come out. Please just cook it all the way. 

I am also a person with severe food intolerances. In order to eat at the Den, I have to choose from a small number of menu items. Those include: 

• bone-in wings (and you already know why I’m not ordering this)
• a burger on a gluten free bun (which charges you an extra $1 just for the bun)
• a salad with no croutons and the hummus plate (which is just a veggie tray)

Of course, I could still get cross contaminated, these options are just the ones that I am the least likely to be. 

With the limited options for people like me on the menu, it’s imperative that the food be made properly as ordered. Half the time I order a burger, it comes without a bun at all, though I select the gluten-friendly bun option. When there is no bun, I still get charged an extra dollar just for clicking that option. I have become forced to keep extra hamburger buns on hand at home because I am so often given a burger with no bun, which is in turn costing me even more money. I am also a commuter student. I do not have a dining plan and am paying for any meals I order on campus with my own big girl money. So, that means I am paying $12.00 (not the $11.00 everyone else pays) for a burger that is not only undercooked half the time, but also does not have the thing on it that I am paying extra for. 

The university has been making a strong push this semester with providing more mental health resources to its students.

In my opinion, food is a basic human right, and our well being depends partially on having access to it. Situations like this make me feel like the university doesn’t care about me or my well being. Seems pretty opposite to most of the things the university has been pushing surrounding that topic this semester. 

Of course, the new Wellbeing Center is a blessing to campus. For some, access to a pharmacy was difficult before its construction. However, more people need food than need access to a pharmacy. Personally, I don’t really care about a new flashy pharmacy if I still can’t get properly cooked food from the restaurants that have been on campus longer. 

The Den needs to do better. The university needs to do better for its students. I ask this as a final message: do they really care about us as humans, or are we just cash cows?

Well, clearly we aren’t cash cows. Cows get fed better than this.