With the Village now open later hours and offering the most popular foods more often, students can satisfy their late-night snack cravings.

The change, which was initiated with the beginning of the semester, initially started off slowly.

To make people more aware of the new hours, Student Union is creating a raffle.

Buy food during the new hours and enter your name into a raffle for gift certificates to places such as Best Buy and the campus bookstore. Each student can only be entered once. There will be five winners.

Student Union is paying for the prizes with fundraising money they raised themselves.

“The raffle is just an added bonus for students to take advantage of extended hours,” Vice President of Public Relations Morgan DeBaun said. “I think it will benefit students that we have these later hours but I think this incentive will make people recognize that it’s an improvement.”

Some students are unaware of the extended hours, and the raffle is designed to combat this.

“I think the raffle is a fantastic idea because most people are unaware of the hours,” said sophomore Thomas Roach, a Lopata House resident. “They’ve heard of them being introduced, but don’t know they’ve been implemented. When I tell them there are extra hours, I get looks of disbelief. And everyone loves raffles.”

Many think that those who weren’t involved with implementation of the change aren’t aware of it.

“The [students] who fought for it are the ones who are going to use it most,” said sophomore Lexi Klein, who lives on the South 40.

DeBaun said, “I don’t know if it’s going to get people. They’re not going to be that excited about the prize but it’s more we’re going to be promoting the extended hours, and this is an added incentive. The first week of the pilot was slower than expected with fewer people coming to extended hours. However, as time went on there was a significant increase in the volume of people eating during the new hours.

“At this point we’re very happy how it’s going,” said Jill Duncan, the director of marketing for Dining Services.

The hours were chosen after a series of surveys and interviews with students to find out exactly what they wanted and what times would work best.

“The goal was to address needs of students wanting late-night dining options,” Duncan said.

Dining Services has been working with Student Union to set up the raffle.

“I definitely do think SU is very good at promoting these types of things to the students, and we’re definitely supportive and will support it any way we can,” Duncan said.

Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Nadeem Siddiqui is optimistic about the extended hours.

“We need to run the pilot program and keep a close eye and review data with [the] Student Union and University,” he said. “My hope is that the program continues, and I am very proud of our team in making this a success. We need to continue to receive feedback as how we can improve. So far it has received good reviews”.

Siddiqui said that the program is currently covering the cost of keeping the Village dinning area open later.

The village now offers stir-fry until 9 p.m. (an hour later than

before) and the grill is open until 2 a.m. on weekends (extended from midnight). At night, it is host to a number of breakfast and comfort foods like chicken, waffles, eggs and bacon.

“I haven’t been hungry late at night, but I do think [the extended hours] are a great idea,” junior David Kajander said.

He said he would probably use the extended hours later in the year.

Dining Services will have conclusive results about the success of the pilot after the first six weeks of the program.

The raffle will start on Monday and continue through the week before spring break.

“Who doesn’t love a chance to get something free?” Duncan said.