Leah Gershman, Special to The Denisonian

Now that students are settling back into their routines on campus, a main topic of discussion has been the dining hall hours, specifically Curtis. The Table at Curtis, located on West Quad, has received numerous complaints regarding their new weekend hours of operation. 

The main frustration is that Curtis is closed all day on Saturday and only open on Sunday from 4:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Students who live on West Quad use Curtis as their primary convenient dining hall, and by limiting the weekend hours of operation, students have fewer options to get food without having to go far across campus. The weekends are the perfect opportunity to grab a bite to eat with your friends at the dining hall, as there are no classes and there is more flexibility in schedules. 

Now that Curtis is closed on Saturday and most of Sunday, students are left to make their way all the way to East Quad, where Huffman is located, for the dining hall amenities. On top of this, if more students from West Quad are going to Huffman on the weekends to eat, this causes increased congestion, longer wait times and ultimately creates an inconvenience for students who simply want to grab a meal at the dining hall with their peers on, say, Saturday. 

What attracted me to living on West Quad was the proximity from Curtis to all of the dorms on that side of campus. However, with these new restrictive hours, Curtis is less appealing than Huffman which is open full time even on the weekends. 

On Sept. 4, all students received an email from Denison Hospitality regarding the feedback they have received relating to the weekend hours at Curtis. They also admitted that there have been complaints about longer wait times at other dining spots such as Slayter Union and Huffman. 

However, they proceeded to restate the hours of operation for both Huffman and Curtis and explained that Huffman is the ideal spot to grab a weekend brunch. There was not an explanation about how this will be fixed in the future. Instead, Denison Hospitality simply put forward the fact that they are evaluating feedback and will attempt to improve traffic flow to enhance the dining experience here at Denison. They did not say whether or not they are considering changing the hours of Curtis on the weekends, which is the primary concern for students like myself.  

Based on my experiences so far, in order to ensure a positive dining hall experience here at Denison, both Huffman and Curtis should be open seven days a week. Since students are living daily on campus, we deserve the convenience of a dining hall that is close to where we are living and open for a meal any day of the week. 

In addition, being a sophomore with a meal plan consisting of eight meal swipes at the dining hall, I would love to have the flexibility to save some of those swipes for the weekends when I have more time to sit down and enjoy a nice breakfast or dinner with my friends. 

Lastly, as a student athlete with a busy weekday and weekend schedule, having Curtis open on the weekends would give me the opportunity to take full advantage of the dining hall after a practice or game. 

The dining hall situation is definitely a popular issue throughout campus and hopefully, after more emails are sent out to Denison Hospitality, the hours would have to change.

Leah Gershman ‘29 is a psychology major from Katy, TX