With Dewick and Carmichael dining halls now open all day, Hodgdon and the Campus Center are no longer the only options for a hot meal after a late afternoon class.
Starting this fall, the dining halls are open continuously from 7:15 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. They used to close after lunch at 3 p.m. and reopen two hours later for dinner.
According to Dining Services, student requests prompted the change.
"Desire for [extended hours] seems to have grown," Dining Services Director Patti Lee Klos said. "Not like two years ago when we'd just get one or two requests."
Because dining hall staff overlap shifts, all-day operation does not require more labor, Lee Klos said. But, food costs could rise if students start to eat meals they used to skip.
Under the new schedule, breakfast hours begin at 7:15 a.m. and run until 10:30 a.m. A continental breakfast of pastries, cereal, and fruit is served from 10:30 until 11 a.m., when lunch begins and runs until 3.p.m.
During late lunch - a new addition - the grill, deli, pizza stations, and the soup and salad will be open. Dinner begins at 5 p.m. and finishes at 7:30 p.m.
Various schools around the country, including the University of Michigan and the University of Georgia, also offer late lunch.
"I just hope students take advantage of it - it's here for them," Lee Klos said.
Some students said they were thrilled with the change.
"[Extended] dining hours let me grab a meal when I want," junior Matthew Durgavich said. "The fact that you can get food all day is really cool."
Sophomore Priya Sharma wishes the dining halls were open all day last year when she and other freshmen had unlimited meals on their dining plan.
"The extended hours will be favorable for freshmen, since they will be allowed to eat anytime they want, which would have helpful last year," she said.
Upperclassman whose meal plans rely heavily on points and not just dining hall meals said the new schedule will not affect their eating habits. "Now that I'm on a different meal plan, it doesn't make as much of a difference," sophomore Melanie Yasner said. "I don't go to dining halls as much anymore."
Other students have kept their usual routines. "I haven't noticed [meal times] really changed because I go to the dining halls midday," sophomore George Filiotis said. "That is because I got used to last year's schedule.
But Sharma said that dining service should extend dinner hours. Dewick and Carmichael still close at 7:30, the same time as last year.
