Weekend dining hours cut at Etta’s, DUC Servery

| News Editor

Students looking to eat on main campus on the weekend will have to turn to Whispers, Cafe Bergson, Einstein Bros Bagels or Subway, as the Danforth University Center Servery and Etta’s no longer operate on the weekends.

While Dining Services altered menus for most of its locations this semester, the only changes in hours of operation came with the closing of the Servery and Etta’s on the weekend.

Nadeem Siddiqui, resident district manager for Bon Appetit, attributed the altered hours to low traffic at these locations on the weekends and Dining Services’ desire to keep costs down. However, many students were upset that their options for buying meals with meal points had been curtailed.

“We constantly monitor sales and what the push is at certain times of the day…so [Washington University] asked us to make recommendations. Everyone’s looking at financial sensitivity,” Siddiqui said.

Siddiqui mentioned that Dining Services took other options for students into consideration before making the change.

“When we made that adjustment on the weekend at the DUC, one of the things that was important was to make sure that something was available, so Bergson will be open, which has coffee, grab-and-go, and soup and sandwiches,” Siddiqui said. “What we wanted to do was offer something still in the DUC, just because students are there…Unless there was something special, the [number of people buying food in the DUC] was not that big. The usage was fairly low on weekends.”

Siddiqui said that overall, Dining Services has several on-campus eateries that are open for a combined total of 170 hours daily in an effort to best match the pulse of Washington University.

“The student lifestyle has totally changed. You guys don’t sleep—you take naps. You don’t really eat—you snack. It’s a totally different culture in that sense. We have to operate in that your lunch could be 3 p.m. and your dinner could be midnight or 2 a.m.,” he said. “With that said, we measure [that] usage all year round. Then that information goes through the dining committee and then to Wash. U., and they make some adjustments.”

Lorryn Wilhelm, a sophomore in the architecture school, was not happy about the new hours for Etta’s especially, as it is the only eatery near the school’s studios.

“I’m kind of frustrated by it, honestly. When I’m down in studio on Saturdays, it’s really inconvenient to walk to the DUC,” Wilhelm said. “There isn’t much very close to the studios. I could go to Kayak’s, but they don’t take meal points. It’s just really frustrating that I can’t get food on campus when I put in long hours on my work.”

Sophomore Nicole DeRosa was not displeased with the changes but didn’t think they were a good idea.

“I was surprised [about the closings] since that’s where most people get food while they’re on campus on the weekends. It’ll definitely make Whispers and Subway more crowded,” DeRosa said.

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