By JACKSON WANG
Executive Editor
The College of Saint Rose announced last week that the dining hall would be changing for the spring semester, according to Dennis McDonald. The new hours are Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. It will be closed from 2 p.m. to 4p.m. during the week.
“Students have brought up concerns over the years to administrators about the old hours,” Student Association President Justin Whittaker said.
Many students were getting out of jobs, classes, student teaching, and practices after 7 p.m., the old closing time for the dining hall during the week, said Whittaker. With the dining hall closed, students were forced to use their money in the Camelot Room, which meant their meal swipes were going to waste.
This led The College to look into the matter and decide how they were going to fix it by drafting a plan, according to Whittaker.
“The College came to us just before winter break and asked if we can make this happen over winter break,” said Rich Meigel, who has served as director of food services at Saint Rose for the last 10 years. “And we went to Student Association and got their thoughts on it and a lot of people said, ‘yeah, that would be great to extend it.’”
“We just gave some background—is it good, was it bad, and what we thought about it—and then they made the switch,” Whittaker said.
He said the administration and food services made the change, but it was the concerns of the students that made it happen.
“But it basically was listening to the students,” Meigel said. “I’ve been here for 10 years and that has been one of the complaints about the dining hall.”
With the one-hour extension during the week, it also meant the dining hall would be closed from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. for cleaning and preparation for dinner, said Meigel.
The College was worried about the dining hall not being clean during the day because it was consistently open. Plus, administrators were also concerned the health department could have issues with that, according to Meigel.
Whittaker said the dining hall was only averaging 135 swipes per day during those two hours.
“For the college campus that we have, that’s a very low amount,” Whittaker said.
But even with midday shutdown, Meigel said the last swipes will be taken at 2 p.m. and allow students to eat until they are finished. And with this change, it affected Meigel’s staff as well.
“I actually ended up adding more labor to my staff, even with a one-hour extension,” Meigel said.
Some of the current employees had to be moved to different locations on-campus as well. But with this change, Meigel said prices should not increase dramatically. He believes the meal plan costs will increase at the same rate that it has been going at each year, which is about three percent.
But most students are enjoying the new dining hall hours, including freshman Cassie Manchester.
“I like how they’re extended,” said Manchester, who enjoys eating later at night. She also said that extending it by one hour would help with her eating habits as well.
But as nice as the one extension is for some students, the midday closing is not good for others.
“I don’t like how it’s closed from two to four,” said Chloe Pearce, a freshman at Saint Rose.
She would normally grab lunch after her class during that time frame, but will now have to adjust to the new hours.
“I have heard a lot of people say they like it. Other people have said that they don’t like it,” Whittaker said. “And with changes like this, I’m sure it takes time for them to get implemented. It takes time for people to get comfortable with. So within time, I think it’s going to be great.”
Meigel said the response that he has been receiving is about 50-50. “People don’t like change at first,” Meigel said.
He said he’ll continue to listen to the responses, and meet with Student Association and the food committee on the new dining hall hours.
