On Nov. 12, the new dining hall hours were emailed to Sacred Heart students. These dining hall hours include Linda’s being open for breakfast, lunch and dinner at specific times. Along with these times, different residence halls have their own time slots to go in and get food.
For breakfast, Seton Hall will be allowed to eat from 9:15-10:00 a.m., Bergoglio Hall will eat from 10:15-11:00 a.m., and the general population is allowed to eat from 8:00-9:00 a.m.
For lunch, the general population is allowed to eat from 11:30-12:30 p.m., Seton Hall students at 12:45 p.m., and Bergoglio students at 1:45 p.m. The general population is also allowed to eat from 2:45-6:00 p.m. for dinner, while Seton eats from 6:15-6:45 p.m. and Bergoglio eats from 7:00-7:30 p.m.. In addition, the general population is allowed back in from 7:45-9:30 p.m..
“Personally, I think the time restrictions in the dining halls were a good idea to keep people more spread out,” said junior Leslie Duda. “More specifically, only letting certain dorms in to get food at a time. I know that when I have gone to get food, I have felt a lot safer due to these changes the university has made.”
The email sent by Kayla Hawley, Sacred Heart Marketing Director, said that SHU Dining team members will be thoroughly cleaning Linda’s in between time slots and that the students have to “grab and go” with their food. This, in addition to the dining hall hour restrictions, will keep the dining hall cleaner and safer.
“The challenges with closing dining venues was to accommodate our students in a safe manner as well as providing speed of service with the limited venues open,” said Mark Tammone, the Resident District Manager of Chartwells, the company that manages Sacred Heart’s dining halls. “For our team members, it was bittersweet. They were all very committed to their safety as well as the safety of our students and the SHU community.”
As for a plan on reimbursing students their dining dollars, an email was sent out on Nov. 13 stating that there will be a rollover of $400 to meal plans for next semester. They also have added additional meal swipes to the two highest meal plans. This will help students that went home early during the semester who did not have a chance to use up their meal plan money.
This differs from the first time students were sent home in March because students’ money was reimbursed to them through student accounts. It was used to pay for classes and even a free class.
“I want to thank all the students for being so patient adapting to all the dining venue changes. We were always happily greeted through the Plexiglas daily. That meant a lot to our team during these challenging times,” said Tammone. “We are very grateful to work and be a part of the Sacred Heart community.”
