Pass: Huskie Stadium sells out

NIU made a head-spinning comeback on Saturday against Eastern Illinois, but that wasn’t the best part of the football weekend.

The passing grade here is the game sold out for the first time I can remember, and NIU won its 22nd consecutive home game. That’s impressive.

Truth be told, the only sport I kind of understand is hockey, so I know less about football than most people would be ashamed to believe. But the point is NIU had 23,595 people in Huskie Stadium on Saturday, according to NIU Today, cheering for our football team through an intense game.

That’s what NIU needs. We need the ability to be a part of something as a community.

This year, I think we’re getting it. Nothing blows up my Facebook news feed more than NIU football does every weekend. Normally, because I’m not partial to the sport, I’d get a little more annoyed each week until I finally start hiding the people who post about football.

But, since it’s my school, too, when I log into Facebook and see all the posts, I can’t help but love what I see.

We’ve won three games in a row, and in my very amateur opinion, we’ve got a lot more wins coming our way.

Though I wasn’t able to make this weekend’s game, the amount of pictures I saw of my friends who did go made me wish I made it. I would have loved to see our Huskies knock the socks off Eastern.

But the truth is the actual number of victories we tally this semester isn’t nearly as important as the camaraderie we all experience watching our team. We’ve got a good year ahead of us.

Fail: Fewer students come for vegetarian dinner

Douglas dining attendance has gone down, according to a Sept. 17 Northern Star article.

This is likely due to the vegetarian and vegan menu introduced in the residence hall. The attendance has decreased from spring’s average of 111 students to 90 for dinner per day.

I don’t have a problem with gagging at the thought, sight or smell of some veggie foods, because some of them are downright disgusting.

From horrendous personal experience, I advise you to stay away from Boca Burgers. Yuck. I’ll happily stick to my Morning Star veggie burgers and bean burritos from Tacos Carnitas Y Salsas.

The problem is when you dismiss a vegetarian or vegan meal simply because it’s meatless. Part of the fun I have with being vegetarian is trying new foods all the time. It’s admittedly tough remembering just how delicious a pan of crackling bacon was before I stopped eating it, so now I’m always looking for new foods to drool over.

Nevertheless, everyone should be open to trying new foods, whether they’re vegetarian or not. If you say “no” to Douglas dining because you want a cheeseburger, there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re denying it just because there’s no meat, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. As many vegetarian and vegan substitutes that are gross, there are just as many (and more) that are delicious.

A good vegan pizza can compare with Pizza Pro’s any day for me, and I am a very critical pizza-eater.

So don’t scoff next time you’re hungry in the halls. Even if you’re the biggest carnivore on earth, your tastebuds will still love you if you try something new.