Late Night Dining returned after an almost year-long hiatus on Oct. 15 to the Commons Marketplace. Late Night is a fourth meal period for students on meal plans that is available from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
Patti Klos, director of Dining and Business Services, explained that students will have to pre-order their Late Night meals on the Transact Mobile App using a meal swipe and then pick up their orders in person at the Commons pick-up window. While JumboCash is accepted at the Commons during regular periods, only meal swipes may be used during the Late Night meal period.
The Commons Late Night gives students the flexibility to eat their food in the Mayer Campus Center or take it to go. Regardless, all food will be packaged for takeout.
"Indoor dining is allowed with no distancing restrictions," Klos wrote in an email to the Daily. "All food at Commons is packaged for takeout. Students can choose to remain in the building, or take their food with them."
Klos said that for now, the Commons will be the only dining location to offer Late Night Dining. She referenced the labor shortages Tufts Dining has been experiencing this semester as a reason for this decision.
“At this time we are not sufficiently staffed to also open Late Night at Carmichael,” Klos said.
Late Night was offered at Carmichael Dining Hall in fall 2020 and ran for several weeks before it was halted due to rising COVID-19 cases on campus.Klos explained that the university will continue to monitor demand at the Commons to evaluate whether or not Late Night Dining at Carmichael should reopen.
“Late night was offered for the first weeks of the fall semester [last year], and attendance was surprisingly low,” Klos said.
University Infection Control Health Director Michael Jordan and Medical Director of Health Services Marie Caggiano commented on the COVID-19 considerations that went into reviving Late Night Dining.
“The late-night dining option at Commons is an extension of dining services offered at other times of the day,” Jordan and Caggiano wrote in an email to the Daily. “Food will be prepared as take-out, although students can remain at Commons if they prefer. Late-night dining will operate following identical COVID safety protocols as daytime dining.”
Sophomore Nathan Reichert explained how he used to rely on Late Night Dining before it was suspended last year.
“Last year, when late night Carmichael was available, I ate there every single time it was available and so did all of my friends,” Reichert wrote in an email to the Daily. “[My friends and I] work out at the gym late at night and are very hungry when we get out. All the dining halls close at 9[p.m.] which does not work for a workout that ends at 10:30 [p.m.]”
Reichert believes that Tufts' current Late Night options are insufficient for students who eat and study late at night.
“Students studying late into the night need energy to fuel their brains, otherwise the studying will be ineffective and this will result in lower academic performance,” Reichert said. “It’s Tufts’ responsibility as an academic institution to provide a way for students to get this energy, such as access to the dining halls until at least 2 am.”
Riechert detailed how the lack of Late Night Dining options this semester has affected his physical health and study habits.
“I go to bed hungry 5 days per week and I am way more tired than I was last year," Reichert said. "[Commons Late Night] doesn’t actually help anyone that’s studying at night because it’s a Friday and a Saturday. The other 5 days would’ve been exponentially better for me.”
