UA talks late-night dining

After a number of on-campus dining options reduced their hours in fall 2008, the Undergraduate Assembly responded to students’ concerns with discussion of new venues.

And now UA members and University officials are developing concrete plans to satiate students’ hunger.

Two weeks ago, UA members met with Business Services, Bon Appetit and Penn Dining officials to discuss possible late-night dining options.

“All of the right people were there, and everyone sort of went home with homework,” said Wharton and Engineering sophomore Tyler Ernst, the UA member spearheading the initiative.

He said the late-night dining plan has both short- and long-term goals.

In the short term, the group hopes to install an automat in the Engineering Quadrangle. Automats, Ernst said, are like “vending machines, but with class.”

An automat has more meal-like options, rather than the snacks usually in a vending machine, Ernst said. For example, the automat might have frozen food that can be heated up in a microwave.

This is an easier goal, Ernst explained, because it would not require any extra staff.

Another short-term goal is longer hours at Mark’s Cafe in Van Pelt Library. Ernst said this will be achieved shortly after Thanksgiving and will continue into final exams.

In the short term, the team is also exploring late-night dining options in or near Huntsman Hall, although this venture is “iffy,” Ernst said.

The results of the UA’s late-night dining survey in September reflected students’ desire for later hours in Houston Market. This option is being explored.

However, Ernst said the location is more challenging because it would need a strong student following to be commercially viable.

He added that although much of the freshman class lives near Houston Hall, for many upperclassmen, that dining facility is out of the way.

One possible solution to these problems is a “hook,” Ernst explained. The late-night dining venue could be accompanied by pool tables, big screen TV’s or live music to bring more students to Houston late at night.

Another long-term goal is to explore the possibility of a venue near 40th Street, Ernst said. The team of UA members working on late-night dining is meeting with the appropriate members of Facilities and Real Estate Services to discuss this option.

Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger said the University and Bon Appetit are working actively on the initiative, but that nothing is set in stone, since they only met with the UA two weeks ago.

Ernst voiced similar sentiments.

“Right now it’s just sort of a waiting game,” he said.

But the anticipation is high, even among UA members.

College junior and UA chairman Alec Webley expressed confidence that if the initiative is successful, late-night dining would be “an ornament to campus life for many years to come.”

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