By Hope Benjamin
Elm Staff Writer
With a new semester comes many changes, including to the Dining Hall hours, as student dissatisfaction is growing for the shortened dinner periods on weekdays ending at 7:30 p.m. and on weekends at 6:30 p.m.
The restricted hours make it inconvenient for students who have limited time because of evening classes, labs, and practices or games.
Barely a month into the semester, students have already noticed a considerable impediment to their food access and expressed frustration over the seemingly out-of-the-blue changes.
“All of the [changes] were reviewed and approved in a decision-making process that included Student Affairs, Business office, AVI leadership, and the Food Service Advisory group that included representation from SGA,” Dean of Students Greg Kirkorian said.
Kirkorian additionally noted that to guide their decisions, this process included benchmark & best practice data across other AVI accounts and higher education. Including the use of meal exchange changes that were recently made.
“In considering hours of operation of the D-hall, we did in fact consult with athletic department leadership related to practice times and opening [and] closing of that facility. A recent tweak to meal exchange options was made allowing students to get meals at the [Craft] beyond the originally approved hours,” Kirkorian said.
The Food Service Advisory Group will reconvene later this month and continue meeting regularly. This group will be made up of student leaders from SGA, SEB, RA’s, Student Athletes, and other student groups along with staff from AVI & Student Affairs. The group will meet monthly to evaluate and address all food-related topics.
Dining Hall Manager Latoya Felton agrees with Krikorian regarding the changes but notes that if there were to be any other changes to the hours it would have to go back to the advisory group for approval. Felton also shared that the error regarding retail location meal swipes is gradually being fixed.
“The error with some retail locations like Freshens, regarding meal swipes, was only so far, some ID cards. So, if your card is not working it would be best to email us and it can get fixed on an individual basis,” Felton said.
Some students are not keen on the changes to dinner hours, citing inconvenience for students who get out of class late or have evening labs.
Jade Lee ’27 has been confused as to why they needed to change the dinner hours from what it was last semester. The change seemingly came out of nowhere to some students that may not be as involved or kept in the loop.
“I find [the new hours] very inconvenient…, as a lot of students have evening classes, labs, etc. Last semester, the food at the dining hall would run out at 7:30p.m., when students were still coming in for dinner because it closed at 8 o’clock then,” Lee said.
Amelia Watson ’27 also agrees that cutting down the hours limits the amount of time that students can go to the dining hall and get food. Most athletic practices occur during the length of the dinner period.
“It is just frustrating for me because practice for women’s rowing on weekdays ends at 6 p.m., we don’t have a lot of time to get there,” Watson said.
While Kirkorian and the Advisory Group may have met with Athletics staff, the new hours do not reflect a schedule conducive to working around practice times which usually fall between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Watson points out that people tend to go to the dining hall around 6 or 7 p.m. Students sometimes get rushed out or do not have enough time to eat if they don’t arrive early enough.
“A couple days ago, someone went around and … yelled at everybody who was in the dining hall, it wasn’t even 7:30 yet. It was only 7:25 p.m. They told us to be out of there as they are closing soon, and it isn’t necessary to be like that towards people. There could have been a nicer way to say it,” Watson said.
This change could be revised in the near future if students speak up to Student Affairs and the Dining Hall. The shortened hours could be better for the dining hall staff, but it also affects the student body who may be under another obligation and can’t get to the dining hall in time.