Students will have to sit ALONE when dining in the JMCC during Freshers’

With Freshers’ arriving in Edinburgh for the start of Welcome Week, Pollock Halls is getting ready to welcome its new cohort of yahs. Living in Pollock Halls will be a different experience for students this year, with the halls of residence having to enforce social distancing measures.

One of the perks of catered accommodation is the social aspect of eating with the hundreds of other students in the evenings. However, for Pollock residents this year, they will have to spend mealtimes alone, at least for the time being, in order for social distancing to be observed.

A video on The University of Edinburgh Accommodation, Catering and Events YouTube page reveals that tables will be spaced two metres apart in order to ensure physical distancing is maintained while students dine. All tables and chairs will be sanitised once students have finished their meal, ready for the next student to dine at safely.

Many other distancing measures will be enforced, and students will be asked to sanitise their hands on entry. There will also be the option to take-away your meal.

Pollock Halls who?

Once students have chosen their meal, they will be directed to an individual table to eat at on their lonesome. There is also a new extended dining area upstairs, which happens to look scarily reminiscent of an exam hall: a distant memory of the past nowadays.

The measures are understandable given the prevailing need to socially distance, but no one can deny that seeing the JMCC like this is nothing short of tragic. Sending our love and prayers to the incoming residents.

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