Students looking for those late-night nachos at Food Court in the next few weeks will find themselves going home hungry and empty-handed, thanks to the shortened schedule on which College dining halls are operating this summer.
Faced with a much smaller College population, Dartmouth Dining Services has reduced the operating hours of all their dining facilities and closed Home Plate entirely for the duration of Summer term.
This summer, Food Court is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends.
During the regular year, Food Court is open from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends.
Full Fare has reduced breakfast hours by 45 minutes, lunch hours by 30 minutes, and Sunday brunch hours by 30 minutes from the regular-year schedule. Dinner hours are the same.
And the Courtyard Cafe, Collis Cafe and Topside are all also operating on slightly reduced hours.
Pete Napolitano, DDS director, said the main reason for the reduced hours is cost.
"We lose money trying to stay open as much as we can," he said. "We are always trying to dig out of a hole in September, October and November financially for the summer."
DDS has lost between $200,000 to $300,000 dollars during the summer in past years, Napolitano said.
"In the summer time you still have payroll expenses and food cost expenses to meet," he said. "From a financial point of view, we could make a case that we should keep open with only one or two facilities instead of four."
Still, Napolitano said, the only facility that is completely closed for the summer is Home Plate.
Napolitano said Home Plate was closed because there is no air conditioning there, and because its dining space was needed for Full Fare customers since the summer camps use much of the Full Fare space.
Students complained about the shortened dining hall hours.
"I feel as if one of my basic rights and privileges as a student here at Dartmouth College has been revoked -- the right to eat, the right to nourishment," Benjamin Donahue '98 said.
"I would question this hasty decision on the part of the administrators in this matter," he said.
Donahue said Dartmouth has a good reputation for dining services among most colleges and universities and that fact should influence administrators decisions.
"DDS should go to whatever lengths they have to go to in the summer to maintain that high level of quality in food," Donahue said.
Matt Blanton '98 said he does not usually go for late-night meals, but said DDS should keep Food Court open until midnight for those students who do wish to eat late.
Still, others said they understood why DDS reduced their hours.
"If they are doing this because they need to be breaking even, I guess it is okay," Andrea Korber '98 said.
Napolitano defended the shorter hours, saying the schedule has not been cut that much.
"It is only an hour here and two hours there," he said. "For the most part, there is not that much of a cut. Even the Lone Pine is open."
"Food Court is a little bit more of a cut," Napolitano admitted.
"There are only a thousand sophomores on campus. There is a much larger customer base the rest of the year. But with only a thousand students, it gets more costly."
