Berkshire Dining Commons has reverted back to its original late-night service for Fridays and Saturdays, bringing an end to the Grab n’ Go service offered in its place at the Night Owl Cafe.
The director of residential dining services auxiliary enterprises, Garett DiStefano, confirmed the reversion as acting in response to the student outcry following the abrupt change in program earlier this month. Every day of the week now offers food until 12 a.m., with the menus posted on the UMass Dining website.
“We never really eliminated late night at Berkshire to begin with,” DiStefano said on the decision to restore the original hours.
He explained the Grab n’ Go service, provided through the Night Owl Cafe, was an attempt to enhance student convenience with food rather than get rid of the late-night program.
Berkshire Location Manager Heather Scoble described the overall response to the change as mixed.
“So, there was some negative responses… Let’s be honest, there was a lot of negative responses,” she said, with a laugh. “There was also a lot of positive responses to having the concept of a Grab n’ Go available to the student, which is something that the student body has been asking for a long time.”
Though students spoke out in favor for late night’s return to Berkshire, Worcester Dining Commons is set to continue without it. Student response for its reinstatement did not nearly match the volume of its Southwest Residential Area counterpart, according to DiStefano.
However, the 65-year-old Worcester building will receive additional features once its reconstruction is finished. The new Worcester, aimed at completion around July 2020, plans to include music rooms, retail businesses (including a cafe and bakery) and more.
For now, frequent Berkshire goers like chemical engineering major Griffin Gadreault are glad to have the original late-night setup back seven days a week.
“I think it was a bit chaotic when they have the Grab n’ Go things,” Gadreault said. “So, they’re coming back with the regular late night – we know what’s going to be; I think it’s a lot better for us schedule-wise too.”
“It’s kind of nice to go back to the way things were,” Scoble said. “Because, you know, you realize that it’s part of a student’s overall experience and it’s part of the culture here at UMass dining. Students really appreciate those moments they get to spend here.”
John Buday can be reached at [email protected].
Nathalie Amazan • Oct 1, 2018 at 9:11 am
Amy you’re so brave and stunning, fighting for rights for those who don’t have any. I’d love to meet you and have some one on one time so we can get to know each other better, email me so we can set something up 😉
Amy • Sep 27, 2018 at 10:28 am
Yeah!! I’ve been saying this for some time, we have to fight back. The school has satisfied to one student demand, they can satisfy many more.
This is our college; it serves us to provide us services/education and we pay the college and the employees a huge amount of money and in some instances professors who make over 200,000 dollars and an university president who makes over 700,000 with a free house and car/chauffeur.
Umass has repeatedly taken advantage of us, tried to take away our services, increased our tuitions, polluted our campus(construction everywhere), restricted free speech(can only protest one hour a day at lunch) and other things and it’s because we as students let them .
Time to fight back and …stay tuned.. for a student bill of rights I and some other students are working on, it’s going to be revealed next month.