The Committee on Priorities and Resources (CPR) considered a proposal last week to extend dinnertime in the dining hall for an extra half hour every night. The plan would offer busy students increased flexibility in their meal hours but at an estimated annual cost of $90,000 to $160,000.
By the end of May the committee will pass along its recommendations to senior administration for final approval. Other options under review include a meal equivalency program after hours at Schwemm's Coffee House and the possible offer of Bonus Bucks on all student ID cards for the purpose of evening meals.
Such serious consideration is the result of a concerted push over the last year from determined student senators in the Amherst Association of Students (AAS). One such senator, Avi Das '07, has made it his campaign pledge three years running and brought the issue to the forefront as chair of the senate's Dining Services Committee last year.
"A lot of sports teams have evening practice so right now they're dashing to Val and barely making it, sometimes not making it," Das said, explaining what a difference a half hour could make. "It's helping the 33 percent of the student body who are varsity athletes, but it's also helping all of us who like to eat later."
Senator Daniel de Zeeuw '08, who sits on the CPR with two other senators, agreed that the student body is behind the effort. "My sense is that students are all for it, but the committee seemed skeptical that it was worth that much money," he continued, given that any decision must be weighed in the context of the larger annual budget.
Furthermore, the College will confront other mounting costs in the years ahead outlined by the recent report from the Committee on Academic Priorities (CAP), which calls for a number of new faculty, expanded class sizes and accompanying capital projects.
Shannon Gurek, Associate Treasurer and Director of the Budget, recognized the advantage to students of more flexible dining hours, but reiterated the financial concern. "The cons really tend to center around the cost of this extension. Valentine is a very labor intensive operation and an additional half hour has a very large cost implication."
Further reticence among faculty and administration may stem from the history of swelling Valentine hours. When Director of Dining Services Charlie Thompson arrived 14 years ago, for instance, dinner started at 5:00 and ended at 6:45. At student request, those hours have steadily expanded with minor changes in worker shifts, but Thompson says another half hour would require wages for an additional 2.5 full-time employees.
"We've done just about all the adjusting we're able to without seeking new funds," Thompson said. "Everything up to now we've done with little or no additional funding, but I can't stretch my staff any further."
Beyond the fixed additional labor costs, Thompson's range of estimates accounts for the uncertainty of how much extra food would be consumed during an additional half hour. "The big key is food," he explained. "That's our biggest question: How much more food are you going to serve?"
Das explained the issue as it came up in deliberations. "Are there students going at 4:30 or 5:00 right now, eating a meal, and then at 8:00 getting hungry again? The question is-would they come back and get a second meal?"
Another option Thompson presented to the committee was a meal equivalency program that would allow students who miss dinner in Valentine to eat instead at Schwemm's between 7:30 and 9:00. The danger of such a plan, though, is its potential popularity.
When the College had such an option years ago, Thompson recalls "lines 30 deep" of students who swamped the coffee house's limited facilities. "It became a bigger program than what we could physically handle there."
Das expressed support for a meal equivalency plan but recognized the flaw with the idea then as now. "On nights when it was cod and scrod, you know, and everything at Val sucked," he admitted, "there would be a line out of Keefe-just out the door."
Ultimately, involved senators have coalesced behind the proposal to extend hours, although it is the most expensive of the options on the board. Anything else, said de Zeeuw, like the addition of a flat $50 to every student's Bonus Bucks, "doesn't help the people who need help."
Of course, the sophomore senator has been around long enough to realize that no hourly configuration will make every student diner happy. "'Why would we want more time for bad food?' was the sentiment we got from a few people."
Das takes comfort in the College's history of students' struggles for dining demands, citing full-fledged student protests in the past over the quality of dining services. The calmer lobbying in recent years seems tame by comparison, he noted. "Part of that may be Amherst's affluence, so on bad nights everyone just goes out to eat," he said.