THE ONLY thing worse than eating sub-par food is being told when to eat. Unfortunately, the University's dining halls combine these two unpleasant aspects of dining all in one. During the week, all three dining halls close at different times, creating confusion for students wondering if they will miss dinner. Dining Services is beginning to reexamine the dining halls' hours of operation, seeking student input in this effort. Continuing in this endeavor, students should offer their support, and suggest that dinner times be extended and standardized across dining facilities.
Newcomb, Runk and Observatory Hill dining halls are open for dinner Monday through Thursday beginning at 4:30 p.m. Newcomb stops serving at 7:30, Runk is open until 8, and O'Hill closes at 7:30, only to reopen for "after hours" running from 7:45 to 9 p.m. Beyond first-year students, the only other students required to purchase a meal plan are those living in the residential colleges such as Brown, Hereford and the International Residence College, and the French and Spanish houses. In a personal interview, Director of Dining Services Ed Gutauskas said that roughly 6,500 students bought a meal plan this fall. Overall, Dining Services caters to about half the undergraduate population through meal plans. A considerable number of other students frequent the dining halls using Cavalier Advantage to pay for their meals.
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Gutauskas pointed out that the dining hall day runs for 14 hours, beginning at 7 a.m. for breakfast and ending at 9 p.m. following O'Hill's after hours. In his opinion, anyone who wants to eat in a dining hall should be able to find the time in that 14-hour range, dinner included. "We get a fair crush of business between 5:30 and 6:30 each night for dinner," Gutauskas said. "Usually by 6:30 or 6:45 we've fed the majority of the students."
It is reasonable to assume that anyone who wants breakfast or lunch will be able to get service sometime in the nearly nine hours allotted for the first two meals of the day. The dinner schedule, however, is a little trickier. Many students have evening classes, labs, discussions, practices or other extracurricular activities that make it difficult for them to stop by the dining hall before 7:30 p.m. for a regular meal. College students are notorious for leading hectic lives with less-traditional schedules. Going to bed well after midnight often is the norm, and students eat food whenever they can find the time. If the dining halls' regular dinner times were extended, Gutauskas might discover a shift in the busiest dining hall hours.
Granted, there are ways to beat the system. O'Hill's "after hours" provide one alternative for the student on the go. The menu, however, often consists of fried, greasy offerings more along the lines of fast food than a complete, healthy dinner. Students also can take their meals to go thanks to the handy Styrofoam boxes and cups Dining Services freely provides. Often, though, students are left to other fast-food alternatives, such as a trip to the Pav or the Treehouse, or a late-night call to Gumby's, which is neither cost-effective nor healthy.
Gutauskas admits that, "Part of the issue for [Dining Services] is that we have three different facilities, and all of them close at different times." This presents a difficulty for students who are left to keep track of the hours of operation of the dining rooms and the many other Dining Services retail locations. To better serve the needs of the student body, Dining Services is considering standardizing dining hall hours. "We want to be open the most efficient hours," Gutauskas said.
Representatives from Dining Services will begin visiting student residence facilities, such as first-year dorms, this semester in hopes of gaining student feedback. Dining Services honestly wants to meet student needs, but only can spur positive change if students voice their concerns.
Students should encourage Dining Services to follow through with its proposal to possibly eliminate O'Hill's "after hours" and extend dining hall hours to 8 or 8:15 p.m. each weeknight. "After hours" as it stands now is fast-food overkill, as there are many places on Grounds that offer a similar selection during the same hours of the evening.
Although a less-desirable alternative, another option is to create a healthier "after hours" menu. If this were to be done, however, it might be just as efficient to extend dining hall hours across the board. Dining Services also should consider the system employed in Harvard University's residential colleges. Each residential college has its own dining hall within the dorm that stays open late into the night, offering a number of healthy foods for students to munch on past the normal dining hall hours. If the University's Dining Services were to employ a similar system, and a very limited menu would be served, students could be charged half a meal rather than spend an entire meal from their plan.
College students need to remember their health despite stressful schedules and disturbed sleep patterns. As Dining Services' primary customers, we should freely voice our concerns and expect that our suggestions will be considered and positive change enacted. Although it will take a lot for students to be content fully with the quality of food served in the dining halls, changing the dining halls' hours for dinner will make at least a few students happy.
(Stephanie Batten's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at sbatten@cavalierdaily.com.)
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