By Jessica Harden
The dining halls are closed during the holidays, even though students are able to request to stay on campus during holiday breaks, forcing students to find alternative dining options.
It is not financially feasible to keep them open, according to Bart Hipple, assistant director of Marketing and Communications Dining Services.
“Students who are staying on campus are staying on by special request and not during the regular school semester,” Hipple said. “Our dining plans are set to cover student [nutritional] needs during the semester.”
It takes at least 50 people to open and run a dining hall, according to Hipple.
“When you multiply that out by what that labor costs, that’s a sizable chunk,” Hipple said. “In order for a dining hall to be open, it needs to have a certain business flow. It also needs to have people who are buying a dining plan for times that are not included in the academic semester.”
Serwaa Yeboah-Korang, a community assistant at Annapolis Hall, said she worked at the Prince Frederick Hall desk during Thanksgiving break.
“It was actually very inconvenient because I’d be on campus… and there wasn’t anything to eat,” Yeboah-Korang said. “Even though I paid for a meal plan, [I’d] still have to figure out my own [food].”
Yeboah-Korang has a kitchen in her on campus apartment, but she said her coworkers had to order food every day during the break when living in traditional residence halls..
“We get paid biweekly, [the break] fell into one of those weeks that we weren’t paid at the time so I was trying to figure out money for that,” Yeboah-Korang said. “It’s a little bit expensive, trying to find all that food, it was very inconvenient.”
Chibueze Uzomah is a resident assistant that was on duty during Thanksgiving and stayed on campus for the entirety of the 4-day break. He said he brought meals and snacks from home to last him the break, said.
If he didn’t live nearby, staying on campus over the break would have caused financial strain, Uzomah said.
“I would essentially be getting at least two meals from outside sources and I would be paying a good amount to get food,” Uzomah said. “I’m also not working so all of the money that leaves my pocket, I’m not getting it back.”
Yeboah-Korang is staying on campus for winter break as well and said she doesn’t have a plan for food yet.
“I just got lucky that I had money, but a lot of people don’t have money right now and they’re staying on campus,” Yeboah-Korang said.
Hipple said the Adele H. Stamp Student Union food court will be open Monday through Friday and the convenience shops on campus will also be open during the break.
Stamp is closed between Dec. 24 through Jan. 2, according to its website. The convenience shops are closed from Dec. 21 through Jan. 5, according to the Dining Services website.