#notmymj: The freshman perspective
Photo Courtesy of SUNY Geneseo
Over this recent summer, SUNY Geneseo has taken the time to renovate the student body’s most beloved dining hall, Mary Jemison (MJ). Located in the heart of campus near MacVittie College Union, Mary Jemison has fed tens of thousands of students and is fondly regarded as many students’ first choice of dining hall. The summer renovation of MJ included making the dining hall function as a Pay-One-Price hall, like Letchworth and Red Jacket. It has also changed the layout, seemingly without notice to upperclassmen and without their input. In order to feed the many mouths on campus, Mary Jemison’s new layout aims to reduce idleness and increase efficiency when moving through the process of ordering and picking up food.
As a freshman, I have heard many differing opinions on which dining hall is best and which one is the worst. In the words of an anonymous upperclassman, “MJ will change your life.” Oftentimes when ranked, the dining halls fall as follows: Mary Jemison, then Red Jacket, and lastly, Letchworth. On weekends, some North Campus residents have said they would rather hike to Red Jacket than eat at their local hall, simply because Mary Jemison isn’t open. Even on my first tour of campus, my tour guide had waxed lyrical about the superiority of Mary Jemison when I asked about her preferred dining hall.
But does that hold up compared to the various other dining halls? In my fairly short experience, Mary Jemison is not worth the lunch trip, nor is it the best dining hall on campus. At first, I considered that I was placing far too high standards on dining hall food. As a freshman, I still believe that my mother’s cooking is the standard. However, my experience with Mary Jemison has only gone downhill since its reopening on Aug. 24, 2026. If you’ve ever heard or thought of the sound of boots in a dryer, then you would know exactly how my stomach manages to sound in my morning classes after eating at Mary Jemison Dining Hall. You may ask: “Mackenzie, have you tried eating something before you go?” Or even: “What if it was the food from the night before?” I can confirm that eating something before doesn’t work, and that the food from the night before isn’t the problem. It’s to the point where the only food I can eat from MJ is an acai bowl and a smoothie. Consistently, when I arrive at MJ in the midst of the lunch rush, the food is cold in the middle, ruining my dining experience.
If my experiences don’t count, then I implore you to consider those of your peers. This anonymous source claims to have once found a dead fly baked into a cupcake she took from Mary Jemison. Another claims to have begun vomiting after getting an acai bowl from the dining hall. Another, that the mobile order gluten-free section isn’t actually gluten-free because all the mobile orders are stored in the same space. That then poses the question: if this is the state of the best dining hall, then what are the others like?