Signs in the North Campus Dining Hall explain the new dining hall hours for the school year.
Late-night dinners and snacking will no longer be a challenge for campus residents this year, thanks to extended dining hall hours that went into effect Tuesday.
South Campus Dining Hall will now be open until midnight five days a week, up from four days a week last year, and the dining halls will also close at 10 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said.
“Student lifestyles are trending towards a later dinner hour than what would be considered traditional,” Hipple said. “Hopefully [the hours will] ease that last-minute rush into the dining halls, because now people will be able to go when it makes sense for them.”
The updated hours are as follows:
South Campus Dining Hall is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to midnight, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
North Campus Dining Hall will remain open until midnight Sunday through Thursday, but will now be open Friday and Saturday until 10 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.
251 North will keep its normal hours of 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekdays.
On the days the dining halls close at 10 p.m., dinner will be served until closing, as opposed to the late-night transition, which will still occur at 8 p.m. on all midnight closing days, Hipple said.
Hipple said he hopes South Campus residents will be happy with the additional midnight closing day.
“On the north side of campus it has been five nights [closing at] midnight,” he said. “There have been many comments on the south side asking, ‘How come they have one more night than we do?’”
South Campus resident Emma Iavaroni said she is pleased with these changes.
“I think they are definitely better than last year,” the sophomore economics major said. “You couldn’t really eat late at night Friday and Saturday because [South Campus Dining Hall] was closed, and we didn’t want to go to Route 1.”
Over the summer, Dining Services officials created the updated plan, taking into consideration students’ survey responses and schedules, Hipple said.
“We’ve been seeing that customers want later dinner times; it’s been a definite pattern that we’ve been able to really see and track,” he said. “[Another] factor in our planning is that now, Freshmen Connection students can live on-campus, and many of them have classes until 8 p.m.”
Despite excitement about the extended hours, sophomore Paula Rabade noted there could be potential for students overeating.
“Coming from a culture where I’m used to eating dinner late at night, it’s great because now I can access food whenever I want,” the accounting and finance major said. But “it may encourage double-eating — eating at 5 p.m., and then eating again later.”
Rabade also worried that Dining Services employees might be dissatisfied with the additional hours. However, Hipple said all employees are “on board” with the changes.
“We have great employees, and they understand their customers and that this is something their customers would like,” Hipple said. “We didn’t get any complaints about the hours.”
Hipple did express some concerns about increases in utility and labor costs, and said he hopes additional sales in the later hours will offset them.
Dining Services plans to keep these hours for the academic year, evaluate their success and track sales to make a comparison to last year’s, Hipple said.
“Our main goal is increasing student satisfaction,” he said. “We will be evaluating [the new hours] in the fall and in January, but won’t make any changes unless we see anything severe.”
