Though they get good benefits, employees say understaffing and student behavior makes working there difficult. Collis is often strained to hire staff to work at Late Night, particularly non-student employees.
"The hours are not very convenient for a lot of people, especially those who live farther away," Collis Cafe manager Mike Ricker said.
Late Night Collis made recent efforts to hire more student employees because they live nearby,
Blaine Ponto '14, who has worked at Late Night Collis since her freshman winter, said Collis often has trouble finding students to work on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights.
"A lot of people have meetings on Wednesdays, and Fridays and Saturdays are when people go out, so people don't like to work then," Ponto said. "But that's when we have the most people coming into Late Night Collis."
Employees receive comparatively good compensation and benefits, Ponto said. Students who work more than 10 hours a week receive a 20 percent discount on all items they buy using DBA. There is also a sliding pay system, benefiting students who have worked there longer.
Hannah Younger '13 said she enjoys the social atmosphere.
"The staff is really nice, and I get to see a lot of people I know when I'm working," she said.
Yejadai Dunn '16 said that while she enjoys many aspects of working at Late Night Collis, she does not like dealing with intoxicated students.
"The drunk kids are definitely a downside," she said. "They can be slightly aggressive if they don't want to pay and you make them pay."
Ponto said that, for the most part, intoxicated students do not bother student employees, but can cause trouble for older employees.
"When drunk people come and see I'm a student, they just grumble a bit," she said. "But if it's an adult, even someone who is their mother's age, they for some reason decide that it is acceptable to vent about everything they are angry about at that person."
Employees who work the register and those who serve chicken tenders and mozzarella sticks tend to have the most trouble with dealing with intoxicated students.
"They don't understand why they can't get 20 mozzarella sticks and only pay for 10 of them," she said.
Despite the antics of drunk students and staffing problems, the cafe may add more food options in the spring, although no final decision has been made. The hours will remain the same.
"The biggest complaint we get is for all the snack food," Ricker said. "People are looking for more substantial food."
After Collis renovations are complete, the cafe will serve ice cream and soft-serve yogurt, in addition to smoothies and milkshakes, and Late Night Collis will serve milkshakes more frequently.
The new cafe will have an expanded serving area and new cooking equipment, including eight burners at the hot-food station instead of the previous six. The space will feature a larger salad bar, and a Freestyle Machine with over 100 different sodas. The sandwich station will be larger and may feature more filling options.
