Exterior of the Fairhaven Commons building PJ Heusted // AS Review
By Caylee Caldwell
During finals week of fall quarter, south campus students received an email notifying them of some new changes to the Fairhaven Commons meal plan. The dining hall that once provided three meals a day would now only be serving dinner.
Food Service Director Timothy McLaughlin and the rest of the University Dining and Catering Services board decided to shorten the hours of operation for Fairhaven Commons based on the number of students living on campus this year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, McLaughlin said South Campus had far fewer students on campus than they had expected.
“When we built the program for the Fall opening we were under the assumption that we would have more students living on campus. We only had about 26% of the norm,” McLaughlin said.
Emails were sent out to students in December with information on the coming changes, a message that made many south campus students unhappy.
Teagan Hudson, a first-year, was disappointed with the changes being made to the Commons.
As a student living on her own for the first time, Hudson was already working hard to eat healthy meals throughout the day and the loss of two campus-provided meals only made that struggle harder.
“I was even more upset thinking about students with disabilities that are even more limited by this irresponsible decision,” Hudson said.
After thinking about the effects of this meal plan change and how the south campus students might be feeling, Hudson voiced her concerns to her suitemates and was met with similar feelings.
One of Hudson’s suitemates, Kyla Sorenson, a first-year and president of Fairhaven Hall council, decided to create a petition for change.
Sorenson felt equally frustrated by the meal cuts being made to the Commons as she started to buy groceries to make up for the loss in meals.
However, the coronavirus pandemic not only affected how students go to school, but also how many of those students are employed. As one of the many people left without a job, Sorenson couldn’t afford to keep buying groceries on top of paying for a meal plan.
“I started to think about how many others the meal loss disproportionately affected: those who are unable to get to the grocery store, those who can’t walk to the other side of campus to eat at the Viking Commons, those who work during the only time they serve dinner, those who are unable to purchase additional groceries,” Sorenson said.
Sorenson took her concerns to the Fairhaven Hall Council executive team, and with the help of Carson Failor, finance vice president, they began the Feed Fairhaven Petition, which can be found here:
After the first 48 hours, the petition gained 100 signatures, and after about two weeks, it hit around 650 signatures.
“I was amazed by how quickly the petition gained traction. After sending it to only a handful of my friends, it seemed to spread like wildfire,” Sorenson said.
Once the petition hit almost 700 signatures, Fairhaven Commons added brunch to their available meals.
“In addition to adding the brunch meal in we have extended our [Provisions. On. Demand. Market] hours each day as well as opening on the weekends for our south campus residents,” McLaughlin said.
While both Sorenson and Hudson believe the addition of a second meal is much better than having only one, they do wish the third meal was still available.
Sorenson understands that having three meals a day takes a financial toll on the University and is happy with the change she could bring but knows some students are still having troubles.
McLaughlin hopes the two meals a day plan will meet the needs of south campus students but has contacted Residence Hall Association and National Residence Hall Honorary nonetheless to ensure there is an open dialogue for any issues that may still be a concern.
“I still believe it would be more appropriate to provide three meals a day, considering that Fairhaven is where we live, learn and work every single day,” Hudson said.
While Hudson, Sorenson and other students living on south campus may still have worries about the meals available to them, the Fairhaven Commons currently has no plans to change their meal plan.
The current meals available at the Fairhaven Dining Hall are brunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and dinner from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Provisions. On. Demand. Market is open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
“I hope to see more students dining in Fairhaven to show that we rely on our prepaid meal plans and that though there are fewer of us this year, we still matter,” Sorenson said.