Events on college campuses usually hype up free food; we all know, after all, that it is a great way to increase attendance at events. The organizations planning events know that many people will come “just for” the free food. That is why they give food away in the first place. But you get the free food with an understanding that you will listen to some talk, participate in some usability study, etc.

What irks me is when people become rude after getting their free food. For example, at last week’s Diversity Week events, during some of the talks, when the audience members were done eating they started leaving, even during speeches. How would you like it if we came to some presentation you were doing and started making noise and disturbing the people trying to listen?

At each of the Diversity Week events we also passed out a sign-in sheet. It had a place to indicate which groups, if any, you were interested in. We were very clear that you did not have to sign up for any groups. We simply needed a count of people at the event, and it was a convenient way to also allow people to sign up for groups if they were interested. We need to know the number of people at the events to determine if they are successful or not. This in turn determines if we will get funding for the event in the future, and therefore if we can have more events with free food. It’s a win-win situation. But people still refused to sign-in. A few people literally ran from me when I asked if they had signed in.

If you’re going to accept free food, and want it to continue to be provided at events, don’t be rude after you’ve eaten, or even beforehand for that matter!