By Landon Allison, Contributing Writer
During breaks, the Magnano Centre‘s Hickey Dining Hall at St. Bonaventure University severely reduces its operating hours. For students who stayed on campus this past break or who plan to for the upcoming Easter break, there are limited food options available.
For students like Anna Campos, a freshman sociology major who is required to be on campus over breaks to attend practices for the diving team, the lack of an easily accessible food source is inconvenient.
“It sucked,” said Campos, referencing this past break. “I definitely ate less.”
She said she primarily ate pizza or went out to various local businesses during the break period.
Sabrina Basile, a junior biology major, has experienced several breaks on campus as a residence assistant.
“If [the Hickey closing] consistently happens, I don’t think that it’s very encouraging for students that can’t necessarily go home,” said Basile.
For most of their meals, Campos and Basile ate at local restaurants or went to grocery stores, such as Walmart and Aldi.
Campos said that the university made the right decision. She said the workers should not have to be in the dining hall full time while on break, as there aren’t as many students left on campus.
“I think that, because some students do stay on campus, that they could have had certain hours where they were open,” Campos said. “That way [the students] weren’t stranded to eat nothing.”
Jennifer Penhollow, food service manager, did not answer a request for comment.
“In the past, I know it’s been open during specific hours, and I didn’t think that was unreasonable,” said Basile. “As far as closing completely, that [is] really inconvenient because I don’t necessarily carry cash on me all the time, and with the winter, it would be kind of inconvenient to walk all the way to Walmart.”
Students living on main campus are required to have a meal plan with swipes to the Hickey, which is only opportune if the dining hall is open.
“Students pay for a meal plan and the break was optional, so it doesn’t make sense that they would not have an option on campus available,” said Basile. “I think, for as many meal swipes as we do get, we should be able to take full advantage of it,” said Campos
Basile offered a call to action for students who wish to see change on campus.
“One small thing that a lot of students could do is fill out one of those one-minute surveys and talk about how they should open over break,” said Basile. “If you have something that you want to change in the school, a good place to start is with SGA because they often have an influence that’s listened to by the school.”
SGA President Haylei John offered more insight.
“I definitely think that a formal recommendation would be a starting point, but also setting up meetings with representatives from Aramark and Student Affairs to try to hit both sides of the matter,” said John. “It would have to be an agreement between both the university and Aramark, due to staff concerns, to revisit hours of operation over breaks, but it’s definitely doable as long as both the university and Aramark are addressed. It’s a valid concern for students that can’t leave over breaks and have very limited options for food and transportation without access to their meal plan over break.”
