The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate will be conducting a head to head poll this week between Pizza Days and Boloco to determine which will win the sixth slot on Tufts' Merchants on Points (MOPs) program.
Both restaurants have outpaced their competitors in the survey that the Senate sent out on Oct. 23, which asked students to pick a place they would like to see on points.
The survey does not officially draw to a close until Saturday, but senators said that Domino's, Papa John's and Pranzi's were too far out of the running to pull out a win.
As of late Monday night, Pizza Days was in first place by 37 votes out of the 1,300 cast, but there were also times when Boloco was leading.
Students will decide between the two in another survey that will be sent to the community as early as today. Students will have until next Wednesday to vote, and the winner could be on the MOPs system as soon as three weeks afterwards.
"It shouldn't be a long process," said sophomore C.J. Mourning, the chair of the Senate's Services Committee.
The owners of the two restaurants were notified of the runoff yesterday afternoon. Pizza Days owner Hakki Dengizli said he was working on putting up more posters for his special $4.99 cheese pizza to encourage more students to vote for his restaurant.
Sal Airo-Farulla, the manager of the Boston Ave. Boloco, said that he is going to continue to bolster support for his establishment by donating burritos to student groups and causes.
"We've done so much over the last nine months to try to really get the students involved," he said, mentioning that he recently gave a student organization 60 free burritos for an event.
Dengizli said that with eight drivers on Friday and Saturday nights, he's currently been serving up to 140 pizzas during peak hours. Because of the high volume of sales Pizza Days has had lately, he said he is not as excited about the points helping his business financially as he is about making things more convenient for students.
When asked if he felt that Boloco might pull ahead because of generally healthier menu options and the fact that some pizza restaurants are already on points, Dengizli said that he's willing to expand his menu based on what students demand.
Additionally, with a 3 a.m. closing time every day, Pizza Days is open later than all of the restaurants currently on points.
Whether or not Boloco wins the runoff, Airo-Farulla said his restaurant will probably start delivering.
The new survey may lead to a higher voter turnout than its predecessor, especially since some students were unaware that the MOPs question was on the original one, while others never got it because it was trapped in their spam filters.
Although the results of the survey won't be final until Saturday, there was no "third-runner" in the race; Boloco and Pizza Days have been far ahead from the start.
