Students in the residence halls soon might not be able to have their ice cream and eat it too.

Because of complaints by the residence hall staff and custodians, the residence halls food services might rethink a new policy started this year allowing students to take food out of the cafeteria.

Residence Hall Food Service Director Ralph Chaplin said the decision was made last fall to allow students to leave the cafeterias with one item of food that they are eating, such as a piece of fruit, an ice cream cone or a cookie.

“We did this in all halls to attempt to be more customer- oriented,” he said. “If a student is finishing an apple or ice cream cone, we will let them take it out.”

Director of Grant Towers South Rose Ann Fazio said “The privilege was first started with ice cream to allow students to finish what they were eating.”

“We then had a series of evenings, mostly around dinner time, where we found an excessive amount of food in the elevators, stairwells and lobbies,” Fazio said.

“This presented a problem not only visually, but was also a safety hazard, as well as being very unsanitary,” she said.

Kevin Hannon, GTS resident, said he has found ice cream and cookies in the stairwells, smeared on the elevator walls and in the water fountains.

“It is totally immature, people who live here are supposed to be in college,” he said. “If you are not going to eat something, don’t even take it out of the cafeteria.

“This is a new privilege, and we do not want to take it away. We just want people to be more responsible,” Fazio said.

There will be a trial period from the beginning of March to the week after Spring Break. If no improvement in cleanliness is noticed, the privilege may be taken away, she said.

Grant Halls Food Services Unit Manager Beth Smalley said,”It would be too bad if we had to take the privilege away.

“It’s too bad a few people have to make it unpleasant for the majority,” she said.