Last week after my classes I felt my stomach roar. I was being told that I must eat immediately otherwise I would not make it through the rest of the day.

After entering the food court and seeing my choices, I concluded that there really was not much of a selection to choose from. The University Union, along with other eateries on campus, do not give the selection of food busy students require. In addition to the choices of food that will surely increase your chances of having health problems, the Union should make an attempt to offer more selections of healthy and fresh food.

I decided to take a trip to the Union to indulge my cravings. I entered the food court looking for a selection of food to satisfy my hunger. I figured a piece of fruit or a salad would be nice — something that would give me energy and would not bog me down for the rest of the day. True — Round Table does offer a salad, but there is hardly an abundance of availability of healthy food.

Don’t get me wrong — I am not a health freak. In fact, I rarely eat fruits and salads. But during this last week, I performed a scientific poll to figure out exactly how students feel about their options in the Union. To no one’s surprise, the average student is not very excited about lunchtime every day.

Out of 50 students surveyed, only four were very satisfied with what the Union had to offer. In contrast, 38 were either unsatisfied or horribly unsatisfied. The remaining eight were simply satisfied or did not care.

The Union does offer a variety of options for people that are looking to put on a couple pounds or increase their chances of heart disease. From Burger King and Round Table to Gordito Burrito and Mother India, the amount of grease the Union uses is definitely keeping the oil industry in business. My guess is that if students were to eat food at the Union every day for lunch during their entire collegiate career (about five years), students would graduate with higher blood pressure, a clogged artery and high cholesterol.

So lets assume that we do have a healthy selection of food. Many students have late night classes and it probably can be said that the average student will be stuck at the Union studying at some point during the course of the year. What happens if you are hungry during your long nights? You are out of luck.On weeknights, the Union is open until 10:30 p.m. Out of all the restaurants in the Union, only one is open late and that is Roundtable, which closes at 10 p.m. Most restaurants close between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

This problem is even worse on the weekend. For those of us that take advantage of Union services during the weekend, you better eat early. While the Union is open till 8 p.m. on Saturdays, most eateries close around 4 p.m. It is even worse on Sunday.

The Union, in my opinion, has one purpose only. While Union officials contend that the Union is to serve the needs of the Sac State community (this includes faculty, staff and the Sacramento area), students are the only ones who pay fees for its operation.

Therefore, it should be a requirement for restaurants that do business in the Union to stay open until the Union closes. Yes, certain restaurants may lose money on this but I feel pretty confident when I say that the eateries make plenty of money to accomplish this task.

These restaurants should consider themselves blessed to be one of few restaurants to have a space in the Union. Especially restaurants like Burger King, which make large amounts of profit on our cravings, should splurge and offer their services for a couple more hours.

Many options are offered that could satisfy our cravings and offer us a better selection of healthy food. I would recommend we take out Burger King and put in In-N-Out. Also take out TCBY and put in a Jamba Juice. We should remove Kung Fu Fats and put in a Chinese place that offers a healthier cuisine.

Finally, we should eliminate Mother India and put in a Farmer’s Market type store where students can obtain fresh fruits and vegetables. While this is an obvious alternative idea, I guarantee that students would enjoy this change.While we are fortunate to have a Union that offers food in the first place, I think it is even more important that the Union offer students the selection they deserve. A better selection of food should be a requirement and I urge the Union Board of Directors to employ my ideas. If they took the time to read the “Union Suggestions,” they would discover that I am not the only student that feels this way.