When news first broke that university icon K Lair would be knocked down along with Haggin Hall next summer, hearts neither bulged nor broke.

On the one hand, the long lines and rushed food at lunch would become a thing of the past; on the other, what are students forced by the university to be on meal plans supposed to do when K Lair closes?

You’ll have the all-you-can-eat options in the far distant planets of South Campus and North Campus, home to Commons and Blazer, respectively. Or Ovid’s at the W.T. Young Library.

That’s three locations for students to use their meal plan swipes, all generally serving the same relatively low-quality, poorly prepared foods.

As those who have eaten at Ovid’s may suggest, UK should offer any student who successfully figures out the chaos that is the “lining-up-and-ordering process” at Ovid’s a double major in tactical problem solving.

The food is usually good, although staff under stress in busy periods have been known to undercook food, as one Kernel staff member found out recently when served pink chicken.

Even when the risk of food poisoning isn’t an issue, the time spent between walking in the front door and getting your chow could be spent writing a novel or building a small house — such is the colossal wait time experienced most of the day.

If the wait for food is bad now, wait until K Lair is no more and you have everyone and their dog on central campus pouring in to get their feed.

Next year will once again see a record number of freshman enrolled on campus, meaning more students on campus will be looking for lunch – particularly in Central Campus.

K Lair and Ovid’s barely manage to be enough; what will happen when you remove the former and have only the latter to serve the hungry masses?

Lunchtime rush aside, K Lair is generally the quickest, most consistent and easily most convenient dining plan option for students on Central Campus looking to refuel.

Never mind the fact that both Blazer and Commons are a long walk for students who may only have an hour’s break between classes on central campus — both are hardly appetizing prospects for those looking for a bite.

Food is often nibbled on by flies in the untold time it’s been sat under the heat lights before you get to it.

It’s not an option for students living in residence halls to not have meal plans, so there should at least be more options for them to choose between when using one of the five (minimum) meals per week they must sign up for.

If the university is going to continue on insisting that students pay for dining plan meals, they should offer more options with wider and healthier choices.

Whether that is by building new eateries, improving what’s already offered, including more on-campus locations in meal plans, or even all three, UK must do more.