Class. Work. Night class. Study. Sleep. Repeat. The nonstop routine of students’ days stretches late into the evening, but the dining hall’s hours do not.
At the start of the fall semester, Drake University’s only dining hall, Hubbell Dining Hall, quietly adjusted its hours; once open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekly as of the spring semester, it now locks its doors at 8:30 p.m.
“During the weekdays, everything shuts down by 8:30 now,” said Aidan Lai, a sophomore who has worked at Hubbell since her first semester at Drake. “Before, the north side would close at 8, but the south side stayed open until 11. Now, closing takes longer, and sometimes we don’t leave until 9:15 or 9:20.”
Sophomore Zachary Kerfoot said the sudden change felt “strange.”
“I know there were political and funding issues happening, but it still felt like a big blow,” Kerfoot said in an email interview. “I feel like most students never got a clear explanation for why the hours changed, and it would be nice to at least have an open and honest reason.”
Hubbell is the only location on campus where students can use meal swipes. Students on meal plans can spend dining dollars at Cowles Café, Starbucks at Olmsted and Spike’s C-Store.
Cowles Café, which carries limited food options, closes at 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and is not open on weekends. The campus Starbucks closes at a similar time as the dining hall, shutting down at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 p.m. on weekends.
“I know I’m not the only one on campus who is wanting food past 8:30 p.m., and I think there’s a real food scarcity problem on campus,” sophomore Stella Pihlstrom said.
The C-Store is open until midnight every day, but Pihlstrom says the food options provided are not a substitute for the dining hall.
“It’s all frozen meals. It’s not anything beneficial for you,” Pihlstrom said. “You’re not getting any fresh fruit or fresh vegetables … I mean, you can get a pre-packaged salad at the C-store, but there’s not a lot of nutritional value you can get there.”
For those balancing night classes, campus jobs and extracurriculars, the earlier closing adds another challenge to already packed schedules.
“There used to be times last year where I would be out having night classes, or I edit writing for Drake [Magazine], and we get out of those meetings sometimes really late,” Pihlstrom said. “So I would go to Hubbell and I’d get, like, a slice of pizza. But nowadays, you can’t go because it closes at 8:30.”
As a part of renovations to the Olmsted Center, a new convenience store will open this month. DRAKE On the Go will feature an automatic check-out system instead of a cashier. According to Chief Administration Officer Venessa Macro, DRAKE On the Go will become the primary campus convenience store, and the C-Store will be more vending-centric.
Easton Wolfe, a former first-year senator candidate, included reopening Hubbell until later in his campaign platform.
“Here, we spend around $8,000 a year for our dining plans,” Wolfe said. “We’re paying that much money, and our food that we get should represent that, and same for the hours.”
Research from PubMed shows that college students who eat more foods with high nutritional value tend to have stronger memory and learning, while higher fast-food intake is linked to weaker executive function, highlighting that access to nutritious meals throughout the day can directly impact students’ ability to focus and perform.
“People do need to be more concerned because as a campus, we champion mental health,” Wolfe said. “But how can you be mentally healthy if you don’t have that food to fuel your brain whenever we’re taking such rigorous classes that we also champion, and we need to have that fuel to be able to activate our minds?”
Drake Dining did not respond to requests for comment.
