When the Point Café was revamped for the 2022-2023 academic year, there was a sense of added convenience in being able to get your on-campus meals and bring them wherever. Eating a decent sandwich in your dorm? Yes. Maybe you want some mac and cheese in the commuter lounge late at night? Why not. Don’t feel like making something during your break at lunch? Just order from the Café, go pick up your food, and you’re set. 

Can you still do this? You can, but with some limitations. For one, the kitchen hours were reduced in March to no longer be open on weekends. Before this change, “Kickin’ Chickin’” and “Smash n’ Shake” were open from 2 p.m. until 8 p.m. That was already bad enough for those who do not have the time to go to the dining hall due to their many assignments or the fact they were at work. Unfortunately for those who still rely on meal plans to get most of their food, that change in hours has stuck in place.

But the changes only continue, and they have no advantage to students.

Without any official announcement, it is now only possible to use a ‘meal swipe’ at the Point Café once a day. Lunch or dinner; but not both. Any sort of communication about this change – either before the start of the semester or even during – would’ve been appreciated. However, we got nothing. The only way I found this out was by one of the CulinArt staff being kind enough to let me know while purchasing items from the market section. This was also when the Boost app was having major technical difficulties; telling students they had no flex dollars when they were activated or not showing their meal plan at all. This was out of the school or CulinArt’s control, but to have that happen and be told about even more limitations is upsetting. There is little sense in spending the money and resources on major upgrades to the Point Café all just to continuously diminish how students can use it within a year. Why is this happening?

Three words: the dining hall.

Getting students to use the dining hall as their primary spot for campus eats has been an uphill battle between food service staff, the school’s administration, and students long before I was a student here. Last year, the Point Café kitchen hours were cut because of a need to do “a few more exciting things in the dining hall.” 

The food quality did improve, likely thanks to a new executive chef. But around 7 p.m. on weekends when one would normally be greeted with acceptable food from the Café, instead the only options were typically burnt pizza from the dining hall and nothing else. This was not equitable for the students who could not eat dinner earlier and was also a waste of a meal swipe.

The recent changes to the dining hall are welcome, although myself I miss the old color theme. But why can’t the café and the dining hall be improved upon in tandem instead of having to force students to eat where it may be inconvenient for them? Depriving students of choice on weekends is not the right way to encourage people to go to the dining hall.