Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Nov. 17 unanimously passed a resolution calling for late-night dining options in the Dewick-MacPhie or Carmichael Dining Hall between the hours of 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. As a result of the resolution, the Commons Deli and Grill will accept the meal plan on Friday and Saturday evenings as of next semester.
The resolution, proposed by senators Christie Maciejewski and Isabella Kahhale of the Services Committee, cited multiple advantages of opening the dining halls at late hours, including creating a study space and establishing a safe area for students at night.
"The point of having the dining hall open was to create a safe space for students to gather," Kahhale, a freshman, said. "It's dangerous that there is no food offered on Friday and Saturday nights when people are drinking, and we don't want students standing in the street in front of Moe's, since that is also a safety concern."
The financial risk of opening a dining hall for a fourth meal, which would require late night staffing and sufficient food supplies, is a concern, Maciejewski said. For this reason, the Commons Deli and Grill will offer a late-night meal option as, at least, a temporary replacement to late-night dining hall hours.
With the motive of ascertaining student interest for the late night dining option, Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos is collaborating with Maciejewski and Kahhale to develop the Friday and Saturday night meal swipe option, the senators said. Since the Commons is already open and staffed in the evenings, this option would be less costly than opening Dewick-MacPhie or Carmichael at night, though food supplies and staffing at the Commons would need to increase.
Maciejewski hopes the Commons area will benefit from the new option and serve as a community space during late hours.
"We are hoping it will revitalize the [Mayer Campus Center]," Maciejewski, a senior, said. "It is the space where you are supposed to hang out on weekend nights. Maybe this will make it a more lively space that people will want to visit."
Kahhale and Maciejewski added, however, that adding a meal swipe option at the Commons would not necessarily mean giving up on the possibility of opening a dining hall. This new plan, Kahhale said, is merely to gauge student interest in late-night meals.
"It is not something that we asked for in the resolution, but it is something that we have discussed," Maciejewski said. "We continue to keep this discussion about late-night dining going."
According to Maciejewski, the resolution's popularity in the Senate mirrored overwhelming interest from students. After evaluating about 1,100 responses gathered through the Senate Services Survey, circulated online earlier this semester, Maciejewski and Kahhale determined that about 74 percent of students were "interested in visiting a late-night dining facility on a regular basis." Another 61 percent reported that they "would consider increasing their meal plan if the late-night dining option existed."
While survey responses and Senate action seem to show a great desire for late-night dining hall hours, the decision to open dining halls ultimately lies outside Senate jurisdiction.
"The survey showed more concrete numbers about student interest," Maciejewski said. "It's a combination of the resolution and the survey that reflect this interest, but ultimately it is a financial decision on [Tufts Dining Services] part."
In the future, Maciejewski and Kahhale hope to hear from students directly in order to collect verbatim opinions that would help them illustrate student interest in late-night dining.
