Some of them, like the newly-remodeled Brody or Shaw cafeterias, offer a wide variety of food options and contemporary aesthetics in the form of brightly-colored bowl-shaped chairs you might otherwise only find in an outdated IKEA catalogue. Other cafeterias do not feature the same luxuries, but all campus dining halls have one thing in common besides tables, chairs and food — students.

Depending on what time of day you go to eat, your cafeteria might be nearly empty or packed to capacity. Either way, there always are at least a few handfuls of fellow diners. Since the new semester began, I’ve tried to make an effort to be more observant of my surroundings (you know, New Year’s resolution nonsense). Taking my new perceptive prowess to the cafeteria, however, has opened my eyes to a number of appalling habits that said fellow diners seem to possess.

Of course, not everyone behaves rudely in the cafeterias, but the few who do have led me to question my faith in human decency.

Okay, maybe that’s taking it too far. But I do feel embarrassed to be lumped together with people who apparently don’t know how to behave themselves in public. So I’ve compiled a few tips — mere suggestions, if you will, on how one might avoid being that guy in the cafeteria during dinner tonight.

The first piece of advice I offer is something that, hopefully, is common sense to most people. After seeing quite a few tables littered with leftovers, though, I suppose it needs to be said. The cafeteria workers provide many services to the diners, but playing waiter or waitress isn’t one of them. They don’t come around and clear the tables after you’re done eating.

In this situation, the culprits very well might be local high school students or residents of East Lansing who are oblivious to cafeteria courtesies, but honestly, this is one of the most unnerving dining hall blunders I see far too often.

Another important aspect of the dining hall experience is who you eat with. Some people eat in large groups, some with a few friends and some enjoy a nice meal in comfortable solitude. But if you happen to be someone who prefers sitting alone, try not to sit at a large table. You’re restricting the seating options of large groups of people when you take up seats around you that you don’t need, and at times such as dinner rush, those seats are sorely needed. Plus, you look extra lonely if you’re sitting solo at a table for eight. Just saying.

One thing I’ve observed recently was not something I expected to see, nor was it something you might think of as bothersome. It is, though, and it seems to happen more frequently than I’d like to admit. I mean, if we’re being honest here, this one’s not that difficult to manage. If you’re listening to music or watching a video on your phone or computer, for the sake of those around you, use headphones.

You would think that’s just common sense, right? Unfortunately, I have had the displeasure of listening to poor-quality speakers blasting quality classics such as “Call Me Maybe” and “Gangnam Style” on multiple occasions, usually from the phones of unapologetic diners who apparently want to share their impeccable music taste with the world.

All right, we get it. Your music is an expression of who you are and is something you should be proud of, no matter how bad your taste might be. Now please stop inflicting it on those trying to eat in peace.

One final piece of advice deals with an annoyance I’m sure everyone experiences at least once or twice in the cafeterias. If you have a loud, shrill laugh, and a moderately-sized radius of students around you have the pleasure of hearing it, try to lower your volume before eardrums start bursting left and right.

Half the people around you will be laughing at you, and half of them will want to duct tape your mouth shut. I know your laugh is something that can’t be helped, but it should be taken into account that not everyone around finds the joke quite as funny as you do. This rule also applies to girls with extremely high pitched squeals — you know the ones I’m talking about.

Although there are other rude behaviors I have witnessed in the cafeterias, such as holding up lines by trying to talk on the phone and order at the same time — seriously, people actually do that — most of these social gaffes easily can be avoided.

We don’t all have to like each other, but when sharing a dining hall with other students, we have to be civil and considerate.

All one has to do is use common sense and basic courtesies, and voilà, a pleasurable dining experience for all.

Kira Bucksbaum is a guest columnist at The State News and a no preference freshman. Reach her at bucksba1@msu.edu.