Dining hall hours changes in the works

Problems with employee scheduling prevented Dining Services from extending the evening operating hours of dining halls this semester, despite student complaints that the hours conflict with classes.

At the request of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's Services Committee, head of Dining Services, Patti Lee Klos had agreed to extend the hours of Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie by half an hour every day, beginning in January.

But at a meeting last semester, Klos said that it would be impossible to effect the changes for the spring. The changes would be "worked on" for the fall semester, she said.

The committee had been meeting with Klos on a weekly basis throughout the fall semester, and the meetings "seemed to go smoothly all semester long," said Senator Alison Clarke, who heads the Services Committee and has led the initiative with Senator Josh Belkin.

"[Klos] promised us that this change would happen for the spring semester, but asked us not to publicize it until they had met with their staff," Clarke said. The senators are both "concerned and disappointed" with the outcome, Clarke said.

The Tufts Community Union Senate proposed extending the operating hours by a half hour every day, in response to student complaints that the dining halls close too early, particularly on weekdays, when classes conflict with dinnertime.

The dining halls currently close at 7:30 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

"I hate having to eat junk for dinner all the time because the dining halls close right when I get out of class," freshman AJ Carr complained.

Klos, who declined to comment on the issue, told senators that scheduling difficulties with the dining hall employees had stalled the plan.

The increased hours would be problematic for Dining Services employees, one dining hall worker said. "Longer hours [would] give me less time to do my own stuff," the employee said. "My life doesn't revolve around people who don't want to eat dinner by 7:30 p.m.".

Student displeasure with the hours of the dining halls has prompted some attempts to make improvements. The Office of Institutional Research recently conducted two surveys to determine student satisfaction with the current dining options, although the results of the surveys were not made public. The issue was also mentioned in a poll on the Senate's website, which asked about issues the student body wanted the Senate to address.

Although Institutional Research's results were not publicized, one of the options presented by the Institutional Research surveys was to change the operating days of Hodgdon Take-It-Away to Sunday through Thursday, open until 10:00 pm everyday. Hodgdon is currently only open on weekdays.

The reasoning behind the proposal was that since most students study on Sunday night, it should have the same hours as other weeknights. But the proposal has encountered the same employee scheduling problems.

Clarke and Belkin will continue their efforts this semester in hopes of making changes next semester, although there remains uncertainty about whether any changes will actually take place. "[Klos] has said she will try but has made no guarantees or promises," Clarke said.