TREY NICHOLS
STAFF WRITER
There are a lot of unknown features around campus that both freshman and upperclassmen might not know about. Two of these are how to use green boxes and how to use the resources at the library.
Green boxes are used around campus to transport food from the dining locations to other places. Green boxes can be bought at Joe’s Place for $5. They can either be purchased with cash, card or Munch Money. Once a Green Box has been purchased, it belongs to whomever bought it, and he or she can use it for the rest of his or her time at Alma College.
“The green boxes were advertised around campus last year when I got here, and upperclassmen told me about them,” said Mia Arkles (’21).
Once students are done with their Green Box, they can hand the Green Box back to a worker at either SAGA (Hamilton Commons) or at Joe’s Place. Once returned, the worker will hand a green clip back to the student.
When a student would like to get food in a Green Box again, they can go to Joe’s Place and order their food and ask that it be put in a Green Box. The worker will put food in the Green Box and the student can proceed to pay for their food. When checking out, the student gives the green clip to the Joe’s worker behind the counter.
Another option is to return the green clip to a worker at SAGA to fill the Green Box with food from the dining options at that time.
This semester, SAGA has invested in a new type of Green Box. This Green Bowl is smaller and is used specifically for soup. The process of obtaining one of these smaller Green Bowls is the same as purchasing a regular Green Box, but an additional $5 must be paid to acquire the smaller Green Bowl.
Emma Grossbauer (’22) said that she did not know that Saga started using Green Bowls because she rarely goes to Saga to eat anymore.
Filling a Green Bowl with soup at Saga will count as a meal swipe, but if a student comes in with a regular Green Box as well, then the student can fill the Green Box and the Green Bowl for a singular meal swipe. When returning the Green Bowl to Saga, a smaller green clip will be handed to the student. The smaller green clips are different from the Green Box green clips.
Along with unknowns about Green Boxes on campus, there are also some unknown things about the library. To check out book from the library, a student needs to find the book he or she is looking for and bring it to the front desk. A library worker will scan the student’s ID card, and the worker will tell the student how long he or she can have the book out for.
If students do not know where to find what book to look for, there is an online catalog of all the books in Alma’s library. Simply go online to http://www.alma.edu and search the library for books using key words. After searching for the desired book, students can find the book he or she is looking for and can also ask a library worker for further assistance locating it.
Another hidden feature inside the library is the document scanner. The scanner is located on the right side of the library after entering through the McIntyre Mall entrance. The scanner can be used to scan book pages, documents or pictures. Scanned documents can be printed after scanning or emailed to someone from the scanning menu.
“I didn’t know that there was a document scanner in the library,” said Ellie Woertz (’20). “If I had known that the library had had a scanner, I would have used it so many times.”
Another thing that some students may not know about printing at Alma is the price comparison between printing in color and printing in grayscale. Students begin each semester with $15 in print credit, and printing in grayscale costs less money than printing in color. When printing documents, the Papercut website will tell students how much money each print job will cost. After printing, the cost of the print job will be taken out of the print credit balance.
