These Eagles want back in the Nest

By LINDSEY AYLOR

College students are unlike any other age group. We sleep in late, stay up late, and of course, eat at very odd hours of the day. This is why Universities need to be flexible with their dining hours and have plenty of options for students to choose from. Unfortunately, at UMW, these options and flexibility have been thrown out, leaving students feeling upset and cheated.

Since the inception of the Underground until the 2015-2016 school year, there were many food options with the Nest, Underground and Seacobeck. All of the food establishments were open at very convenient hours ranging from 8 a.m. for breakfast, until 1 a.m. on the weekends for late night food runs. This created the most flexible environment for student schedules.

The Underground was open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and even served late night options, such as chicken and waffles or spinach artichoke dip until 1 a.m. on the weekends. This allowed students to have food for campus events, such as Bingo and Trivia night. Now students have no dining options at the Underground when events happen there because the Underground is now only open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

However, this is not the only dining option that has been cut down in the wake of the University Center, the Nest has taken dramatic cut backs as well.

The Nest used to be full of lively activity, now it is just a shell of its former self. Once the University Center opened its doors, it revealed that the WOW Wingery was now within the fourth floor dining, resulting in severely limited hours and menu.

The new menu in the WOW section of dining now only does burgers and has a rotation of quesadillas and grilled cheese. This is a shadow of the WOW’s former self as it used to be in the Nest adjacent to Vocelli’s Pizza and was a favorite place of many students on the campus. “It was reliable, the quality of food and the time of service,” said senior David Phillips.

“You could also get food for just a meal swipe and not use flex, there were also many options.

Being an athlete, I wasn’t able to go at the normal meal times, and so having something open other than Vocelli’s was very convenient.”

Phillips is not the only one that feels that the changes made to dining on campus should have been left alone. Even the freshmen on campus feel cheated by the lack of dining options.

“I’m upset that it’s not open often,” said freshmen Lindsey Kowaki. “It’s only open for lunch and that’s when I generally have my classes. I would want it to be open later than the UC is. Like late night hours.”

Freshmen have missed out on how great campus dining used to be. The university had such a great system of dining services, and now they have severely limited the options students have available to them. This is because everything has been consolidated into the University Center in order for the University to pay for this new building.

The University Center dining options all close by 10 p.m. at the latest with the majority of dining options closing by 8 p.m. This goes directly against what the University had established as the dining precedent for years before the University Center was created.

“There needs to be more eating options after 8 p.m., college students stay up later and eat later, so we need more late options on campus,” said junior Colin Cate. “And anyone on the anytime meal plan is really shortchanged because their options are limited to just the UC.”

This suggests that the change of the dining hours and options is a way for the University to make money to pay of the University Center instead of listening to the wants and needs of the students. The Eagles want back in their Nest and Underground, not crammed into the desired hours of the new University Center.