Starting this fall, the hours of operations have changed at various dining locations across campus.
Marketing Manager for Dining Services Kevin Aubrey said in an email, “Our goal is always to provide the comprehensive dining program that our consumers demand while being smart with your dining dollars to maximize the program in all aspects. […] Before making any changes to hours of operation, we try to take a hard look at patron counts to see how many patrons we would displace with any one change.”
Danforth and Douglass Dining Centers both close an hour earlier than last year, with Danforth closing at 8 p.m. and Douglass closing at 7 p.m. While Douglass’s dinner hours have shortened, the building will be open for continental breakfast at 7 a.m., half an hour earlier than before.
Other locations with changed hours of operation are Starbucks, Pura Vida, Hillside POD, Rocky’s Sub Shop, and the Commons. While Starbucks was open until 2 a.m. Thursday through Saturday, it now closes at 1:00 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and at midnight on weekdays. Pura Vida now closes at 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, different from 6:30 p.m. last year.
Hillside opens later and closes earlier than last year on Monday through Wednesday, with the current hours on those days being 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays have a later opening time (9 a.m.) than last year, but the closing time remains 3 a.m. Weekend hours are the same except for Sunday, when Hillside closes at 1 a.m.
Rocky’s Sub Shop now accepts meal swipes beginning at 8 p.m., and its Thursday closing time has been moved up to midnight. The Commons has shorter hours for Panda Express and the Salad Bar; these two stations close at 10 p.m. instead of midnight.
Sophomore Matthew Bathon said he was disappointed with the earlier closing time at Danforth. He mentioned his experience as a member of the fencing team.
“We get out [of practice] at like 8:30, and traditionally we would [go to] Danforth, but since the hours changed, we are now not able to go there.” He added that “it puts more pressure on freshman who can’t use their unlimited passes” if Danforth closes before they get out of practice.
Junior Sam Polk was less affected by the changes. “The way that I eat is that I tend to eat off campus if it’s later, so [Danforth] closing early doesn’t really affect me.”
“It’s certainly not a foolproof process, but, as ever, we always try to take customer feedback and adjust as we feel is necessary,” Aubrey said. “For example, some, if not all, of the changes from last year to this year are fine-tuning revisions from previous additions to the schedules based on feedback from students, campus groups and more.”
Aubrey also said that changes to the current system would not be made without first allowing enough time for students to realize the changes and consequently observe “adjusted traffic patterns.”
McAdams is a member of
the class of 2017.
