This post was updated Feb. 16 at 7:13 p.m

As I left Bruin Plate one evening last quarter, I heard a voice behind me urgently yell, “STOP!”

I turned around to a dining hall employee looking directly at me.

”You can’t take food outside of the dining hall,” they said. “Put it back.”

Looking down at my hands, I realized I had absentmindedly grabbed an orange to go, in plain view for everyone to see. I apologized and returned the orange back into the fruit bowl.

As I exited the dining hall a few moments later, I smiled sheepishly at the dining hall employee, showing them my two wide-open hands.

UCLA Housing-Dining’s no-takeout rule in residential restaurants has become inequitable and obsolete.

It punishes students who act with integrity but allows those who pilfer to get away scot-free, leaving students with no alternative but to either exploit the policy’s deficiencies or suffer the unequal burden of compliance.

Such a policy sets a poor example for the character that UCLA Housing-Dining aims to instill in its students and creates hostility between the administration and its student body.

[Related: ‘I felt like a freaking boss’: Students disregard, decry UCLA no-takeout policies]

Julia, a second-year undeclared student who was granted partial anonymity out of fear of retaliation from UCLA Housing-Dining, said she often takes food from dining halls even though she is aware of the policy.

Similarly, Evan, a second-year business economics student who was also granted partial anonymity out of fear of retaliation from UCLA Housing-Dining, said he usually conceals stolen food within his pockets.

“We can confirm that incidents do occur and are taken seriously,” a UCLA Housing-Dining spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “Housing-Dining works closely with its staff to foster a respectful dining environment and implements preventive measures such as signage, staff monitoring, and education on dining policies.”

However, Evan and Julia are not outlier students. It is clear that the “preventive measures” UCLA Housing-Dining purports are largely ineffective.

If the reality of our current situation is that students can simply hide any food they wish to carry out of dining halls, then this rule has become defunct and difficult to enforce equally across the student body.

It is not just the challenges of enforcement that should prompt UCLA to reconsider its no-takeout policy. A more open policy would expand the nutrition students can receive and would no longer punish students who may act with integrity by taking food out in a more honest way.

Access to food is a critical part of a student’s quality of life and of the perception a university builds within its own student body.

The sense of belonging students feel with their university can be fractured when administrators are too stubborn to accommodate students.

Granted, launching a takeout policy could be complicated and potential higher costs would be passed onto the entire student population.

Students that currently do not take food out could be forced to pay a higher cost under a revised takeout policy imposed as a consequence of the impropriety of students who currently do.

“I don’t take food out of the dining halls,” said Shivali Pathak, a second-year public health student. “I’ve seen in the past that they get pretty annoyed when people take food out of the dining halls, so I didn’t find any reason to.”

Under UCLA Housing-Dining’s current no-takeout policy, students who do not take food out of dining halls are effectively penalized, while those who violate the rule benefit, leaving honest students at a disadvantage.

When asked what solutions they believe UCLA should implement, Julia suggested expanding dining hall hours so that students are not restricted to eating only when UCLA decides they should.

[Related: Opinion: Students shouldn’t have to skip meals to succeed – UCLA must expand dining hours]

Evan recommended that UCLA Housing-Dining allow students to at least take a single piece of fruit, perhaps something they could hold with one hand.

Given students’ concerns, UCLA Housing-Dining should revisit its dysfunctional takeout policy. Allowing an apple or an orange out of the dining halls is not where the university should draw the line.

One orange just could be enough for an aggrieved student to write a column.