Students Voice Concerns Over Dining Options and Hours

By Julia Gavigan | Copy Editor

SCRANTON – Students at the University of Scranton are frustrated about the rigid dining hours of operation that do not cater to their busy schedules.

There is nothing worse than traveling all the way down the hill toward The DeNaples Center on a cold Saturday morning to find Grille Works, Chick Fil-A, Which Wich, Pizza and Pasta closed. There are three options: one, trek back up the hill, two, spend flex on Starbucks for a sandwich that will only buy you three hours at maximum, or three, waste time and travel up to the dining hall.

The options aren’t great, and they aren’t much better during the week.

“As a whole, campus shuts down too early for college students. Food is basically unobtainable after 7:30 campus wide,” Danny Holzman, a junior kinesiology major, said.

This is true. According to the Scranton Dining hours of operation posters that are scattered around campus, the only dining options that are available after 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday are Grille Works and Chick Fil-A.

As classes amp up assignments and exams for midterm season, students now more than ever are staying up late finishing the last-minute papers and making the final touches on their projects. Many students are frustrated that dining hours conflict with their busy schedules.

“For Einstein’s it would be helpful if they were open later because sometimes, I want to get Einstein’s after my classes and I can’t,” Allison DeMeo, sophomore occupational therapy major said.

The frustration is palpable all over campus, but dining services have been implementing a few changes, including adjusting the hours of operation, to make students’ dining experience easier and more enjoyable.

“The Scranton Dining team has been, and always will be, committed to providing the best customer service for our campus” General Manager of dining, Joe Boyd said.

According to Boyd, dining hours were changed from last semester. For example, Chick Fil-A hours are now 11 a.m. to 11 p.m Monday through Thursday. New additions also include Food Truck Tuesdays, Revello’s Old Forge Pizza on Wednesdays and Nobu Sushi on Thursdays.

Students are very excited about these new options that break up the monotony of eating the same meal every week.

“The new additions are great, it’s a good source of variety” Holzman said. “The lines are always insanely long because people are tired of eating Chick Fil A everyday.”

There is also the new addition of a variety of to-go options.

“We have introduced more options for grab-and-go meals from York Street and Good Uncle, as well as the option to grab featured dishes from the Fresh Food Company down on the first floor,” Boyd said.

These to-go options are a perfect option for busy students; however, on Saturdays and Sundays they aren’t offered until 4 p.m.

“I just think it just opens way too late. There’s no to-go options in the mornings on the weekends,” said DeMeo.

If students are looking for a quick meal, many are left to wait or to grab something from Starbucks until they can use their meal plan.

While students appreciate the new additions, hours of operations need to be extended to accommodate their hectic schedules so they can fully appreciate their options.