Most days I am running around non stop trying to get my work done, go to class and find time to eat in between. This past Tuesday at 8 p.m. was no different from any other day. I was tired and had just retired to my room after a long day of doing homework and working on deadline for the Chronicle.
I hadn’t seen my friends all day so I decided to grab dinner with them at the cafe. Cafe Q closes at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, right?
So when my friends and I walk into the student center we are thoroughly disappointed to see that all of the food stations have been cleaned for the night and are no longer serving food. The only options for us to eat are potato chips, the candy bar and some spinach leaves that weren’t taken out of the salad bar yet.
According to the Quinnipiac website, Cafe Q is open from 7:15 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and closes at 7 p.m. on Fridays.
If the cafe is open until 9 p.m. you would like to hope that at 8 p.m. you would still be able to grab a meal before or after a night class.
The Quinnipiac website also lists when each station closes and some of the stations close as early as 7 p.m. on the weekdays. That leaves only the salad bar and sometimes soup if you are lucky. Most of the time – as far as I have seen – Chartwells employees clean those stations up early.
I had no idea that the stations closed at different times until I looked into it online. Many students do not have time to look online to see the specific hours each station closes and become upset when the station is closed but you are still able to walk into the cafe.
My friends and I ended up going to the Bobcat Den – nicknamed “the Ratt” – to find something to eat.
While the Ratt is open later than the cafe, there are less food options available to students, most of which being unhealthy.
Mondos subs are always an option but not every student is always in the mood for a sandwich or a salad. The bottom line is, the cafe always has a variety of food options that can be more than just a “late night snack” that you can get from the Ratt.
If Chartwells employees are required to close their stations before the actual time the entire cafe is supposed to close, it would be more logical if they would simply change the time the cafe closes. It is misleading for students who don’t have much time during the day to go to the cafe at 8 p.m. and not be able to get a late dinner.
I think if the employees are required to close their stations at a certain time, it would make sense if that was the time the entire cafe closed at that time as well. Either that or just extend the hours the stations are open so students are able to get a late dinner if that is what they have time for or are accustomed to.
As an employee at Chipotle we are required to close at 10 p.m. so I can sympathize with Chartwells employees wanting to clean up and go home after a long day of work. But at Chipotle, we are supposed to wait until at least five minutes after 10 p.m. to close down our stations in case more customers come in last minute.
I feel that instead of having separate times for the cafe and specific stations closing, there should be one universal time for all the stations to close and the entire cafe to stop serving students. It is unfair to students who just want to get a meal and are disappointed when they have to walk to the Ratt and get something quick to go.
While there are many options for getting food on campus, it would be nice to know that after a long day of working hard I could easily get a nice meal from the cafe (that is not in an overly small paper boat) without having to wonder if they have already closed or not before 9 p.m. and I think many students would agree with me.