but for the next few hours , the cafeteria is safe ground for fringe dwellers and outcasts of the college , and the dining hall is already full of them by the time i arrive : scruffy independent boys from the nearby run-down dorms ( garland , mayes , gerard , lester ) , foreign exchange students , computer science majors , members of the black student union , potters and painters and sculptors whove spent all night in the studios of bryant hall , assorted hippies at loose ends .