Cafeteria hours at Loyalist to be extended in new year

By Evan Cooke and Nick Liard

Starting in January, students will be able to line up for both Subway and the cafeteria after 3:00 pm, now that Aramark has extended the hours for the main cafeteria until 6:30 pm every night.

Loyalist College will have extended cafeteria hours in the new year, following many complaints from hungry students.

Pierre Overvelde, Loyalist’s food services manager, confirmed in an email that the main cafeteria, which previously closed at 3:00 pm, would stay open until 6:30 pm on weekdays. As well, the “Res Express” delivery program has been canned for good, and Subway will replace Tim Hortons as the food option on Saturdays.

Also coming in January will be a food service advisory committee consisting of both student government and school administration representatives. It won’t be the first time student government and Aramark – the food services company at the college – representatives have met though.

Chris Barnim, student government president, said that he credits a meeting with Overvelde before reading break as a major step in implementing the new hours.

“Every idea that we have he’ll write it down and take it into consideration, so they’re very cool.”

Barnim, who also works at the library, puts in some late hours at the school. He said he’ll appreciate the added variety in dinner choices.

“I’m uber excited, I can’t wait, I’m here late and Subway…you can only have it so many times a week.”

But some students still want longer hours of operation. Tony Coculuzzi, an animations student, said that he’d like to see the cafeteria stay open until at least 9:30 pm.

“There’s a lot of students that they need to accommodate and they’re not accommodating us.”

Kevin Weese, another student in the animation program, said the new hours are a good start.

“It’s an improvement, but I’d really like to see it later, because they have the Subway open until 8, so why not have this open until 8, because a lot of people will usually work until 7 or 8.”

Overvelde declined the request for an interview, but said that “These decisions were made with the assistance of input from the students and faculty and we feel that this will better serve the College community.”