The South Campus Dining Hall will remain open between dinner and late night starting Monday, just about one month after a Residence Hall Association subcommittee began pushing for the extended hours.

Rather than closing between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., the dining hall will extend the hours of several food stations, including the salad bar and pasta station, and begin late night at 8 p.m. Members of the RHA dining advisory board said they were pleased with how quickly the Dining Services officials moved after they began discussing the issue in early March.

“RHA’s main goal is to represent all the on-campus students, and this was obviously a big deal to many people, so for us to be able to get something this big done that’s going to make a lasting effect felt really great,” said sophomore theatre and plant sciences major Dwight Townsend-Gray, chairman of the RHA dining services advisory board.

Bart Hipple, the assistant director of communication for Dining Services, said students were “persistent” in repeatedly pushing for the extension.

Hipple added that it is too early to tell whether staying open will increase Dining Service’s labor costs. However, Food Service Manager Dan Robertson said he thinks the change could bring in more money.

“We haven’t seen it in action so we can’t make that judgment yet, but we would think it would help us a little bit,” Robertson said.

Robertson added that he is looking forward to giving students another dinner option.

“We’re looking forward to it because it’s going to give people a place to eat on this side of the campus when we would normally close,” he said.

The pasta bar will extend its hours to 7:30 p.m. and the pizza station, bakery and ice cream station, salad bar and sandwich stations will all remain open through late night. To transition without closing doors to students, Dining Services staff will shut down the grill for a short period to clean and will close the value meal station at 7 p.m.

Hipple said he was able to implement the change in less than one month by simply adjusting the station’s closing times.

“We went and worked out a model that would make sense and allow us to give employees breaks, which was one concern, because when we closed before we had time to clean up, give everybody a break and reopen with minimum staff,” Hipple said.

Townsend-Gray said it first occurred to RHA members in early February that students wanted more flexibility from the South Campus Dining Hall.

“I personally was getting dinner with a couple of my friends and they started complaining, ‘You know, how come the dining hall isn’t open from 7 to 9?'” Townsend-Gray said.

He realized many other students have asked the same question and decided to introduce the issue to the committee and Dining Services officials about a month later.

Several students, such as sophomore environmental science and policy major Sara Yannuzzi, said it was frustrating having to rush to the dining hall for dinner before it closed.

“I’m just excited there’s not going to be a gap anymore because then there’ll be more flexibility in my schedule of when I can eat,” she said.

Others said they anticipated the new hours, especially as the Commons Shop has been “packed” with people looking for snacks before late night begins.

“It’s probably the best decision they ever made,” said sophomore economics major Zach Ashe said.

gray@umdbk.com