Students at the University of Victoria are struggling enough in this pandemic, and removal of the right to eat and drink when inside the Uvic McPherson library is having a huge effect. Students are finding themselves dehydrated and starving, and are being forced to choose between taking care of their body's basic needs or working on schoolwork.

Often students choose the library as a place to study and work on assignments. With the current COVID-19 pandemic, these students are being told that they cannot bring food or drink inside the building. Because of this, students have to make a choice when it comes to eating or doing schoolwork. If a student wants to eat or drink, they have to pack up all of their items, sign off any Uvic computers, and make their way to a designated eating area. Doing so cuts into the limited time  that students have between classes to study. As a result, students like myself are struggling to complete their coursework, and are often going hungry much longer than they would otherwise while working on homework and assignments.

The options for where to eat and drink on campus are limited at best, and endangering to personal health at worst. An acceptable indoor dining area is the Bibliocafe, which currently has limited seating of about 30 seats, and as a result, it hardly ever has open tables. A second approved indoor dining area is Mystic Market which is always at full capacity, with little to no social distancing. Because of this, students often find themselves shivering in the cold and often windy and rainy Victoria weather while eating food as quickly as possible so they don't get hypothermia or a cold. The primary option for eating on campus, if students want to go indoors, is the MOD. The MOD also falls short of offering an ideal dining location, as is hardly warmer than outdoors, since all the windows are kept open despite winter temperatures. Another issue with the MOD is a lack of physical distancing. The MOD can get very full of students, which is likely the product of uvic banning eating and drinking in the library, since this concentrates students who want to eat into the same building.

Inside the library, all staff and students are wearing masks, and the building contains many open spaces, allowing students and staff to maintain physical distancing from one another. The library has lots of physical distancing opportunities, which is contrasted by the quad when classes are switching. The quad often becomes crowded with a mass of students, many without masks, and hardly any physically distancing. 

In conclusion, Uvic should resume allowing eating and drinking inside of the library, as it is an area where people are vigilant about keeping masks on when not eating or drinking, It helps students to better manage their school work and personal health, and there is many options to maintain physical distance.