Florida Atlantic University students cannot get a meal on campus past 10 p.m. and this is a problem.
For the 4,000 students who live on the Boca Raton campus, there is no dining option available after 10 p.m. Students are faced with three choices: leave campus and open their wallets to drive-thrus, order food on delivery apps or go to bed unsatisfied.
College Vine, a recruiting website for high school and college students, stated that a wearable technology company called Jawbone found the average college student goes to bed at 1:26 a.m. This leaves a three-hour gap where students are unable to access meals on campus.
FAU’s Atlantic Dining Hall hours are simply not accommodating to the average student. The singular dining hall is open from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays. It is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Other buildings on campus have more accommodating hours, but the dining hall is not one of them. The S. E. Wimberly Library is open until midnight during the weekdays and the all-night study center, located in the Hillel Jewish Life Center, is open 24/7. This building is situated on the Breezeway and serves as the epicenter for Jewish life for students of Broward and Palm Beach County. If students can work in the library until midnight and visit the study center any time, why can’t students eat past 10 p.m.?
To add to the list, the campus recreation center is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday to Thursday, a full hour after the dining hall closes. If the gym can operate early in the morning and late into the evening, why can’t the dining hall?
Students who have their cars on campus may find that these constricting hours do not impact them, as they can easily leave campus for a meal. This is not the case for a number of students without cars, who find themselves hungry and stuck on campus after 10 p.m. Of course, there are dozens of vending machines on campus. But no student should be forced to eat a Rice Krispie Treat or bag of M&M’s candy for dinner.
For the unlucky students left hungry on campus, there are tempting fast food delivery apps like Grubhub, Uber Eats and DoorDash. In an August study done by the Education Data Initiative, a team of researchers who collect data from the U.S. Education System, found college students spend $410 a month eating off campus.
This means, by the end of a freshman’s first semester, they would have blown through $1,640 on off-campus dining. If FAU could provide a late night option for students, they could save their money and possibly have access to healthier meal options.
In 2022, I was an out-of-state freshman at FAU without a car. I constantly found by the time I was finished with my assignments, extracurricular events or work — the dining hall was closed. This was extremely frustrating, and I found myself throwing together microwavable options that were barely meals.
There is always the option to cook your own meals when the dining hall is closed. Atlantic Park Towers, the most expensive freshman dormitory, coming in at an average of $5,102 per semester for first-year residents. It is the only dormitory to provide refrigerators in each suite and a kitchenette on each residential floor.
The other five dormitories have one kitchenette in each building, shared by hundreds of students and do not provide refrigerators. It is possible for students to purchase and bring a ‘mini-fridge’ of their own to campus, but this is just another expense to add to their meal plan, which is already in the thousands.
Other universities have answered their students’ prayers and provided them with accommodating hours. Cornell University’s Bear Necessities Grill and C-Store is open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. The Ivy League University’s Grill acts as a convenient store and restaurant, with a full breakfast menu, sandwiches, pizza, salads and beverages.
At the University of California Los Angeles, there are four dining options open until midnight, including De Neve, one of their main dining halls, as well as a dessert food truck.
If other universities can provide their students with more accommodating dining hours, why can’t FAU?
The university has a food truck on campus called “Truck Stop.” If the food truck extended their hours until midnight or later in the evening, students could have a late-night dining option right on campus.
Students already have so much on their plate with classes, extracurriculars and their careers, they should not have to add unaccommodating dining hours to their tray.
