Nataley Davis | staff writer

Since the Rev. Sean Hogan Dining Center closed for renovations on April 13, students have been adjusting to an accommodated dining plan that will continue for the rest of the semester.

New food stations with adjusted operating hours are now set up in various locations including the Union Ballroom, the Unico Family Pavilion and along Academic Walk.

Instead of the fixed number of swipes on their meal plan, students are provided with 10 each day until the semester ends. They can use up to 10 swipes a day, as opposed to the four they are usually allowed.

There are also expanded dining options that students can use meal swipes at, like different food trucks and Moonlit Burgers, where they could only use Flex Dollars before.

Sophia Blanchard, a freshman education major, said that the recent cold spell in Pittsburgh has made it difficult to adapt to outdoor eating options, which are a substitute for Hogan during renovations.

“When it was raining all day, I just didn’t eat, ’cause I didn’t want to go outside,” Blanchard said. “I chose to live in Towers so I didn’t have to go outside to eat and now I have to, so it’s a little frustrating ‘cause they didn’t tell us this at the beginning of the year.”

Amy Steedle Hilterman, Duquesne Dining marketing manager, said in a statement to The Duke that inconsistent temperatures have been among the main obstacles in transitioning to the new dining setup.

“Wind and on-again, off-again colder temperatures can sometimes require extra attention behind the scenes,” Hilterman said.

In a statement to The Duke, Scott Richards, assistant vice president for auxiliary services, said that the dining staff have been resilient in dealing with changes.

“Dining teams have stayed proactive and adaptable, making sure equipment continues operating smoothly and service remains consistent throughout the day,” Richards said. “Staff have done a really great job adjusting quickly, and students have been flexible and supportive during the transition.”

Leanna Fenneberg, senior vice president for student life, said in a statement to The Duke that Hogan’s makeover, inspired by student feedback, is going well and will improve life on campus next school year.

“Additional updates, previews and reopening details will be shared as we get closer to the fall semester,” she said.

At Wednesday’s Student Government Association meeting, Adam Wasilko, dean of students and vice president for student life, said that if any students that live in Towers are struggling with the noise from the ongoing construction in Hogan, to bring their concerns to Residence Life.

He said the reason they started the work during the school year was because of the scale of the renovations.

“They’re literally gutting the entire dining center, they’re taking up the concrete, they’re re-pouring it. It’s going to look like a different building when you walk in,” Wasilko said. “They couldn’t guarantee that it would be done for move in, so that’s why they started the construction two weeks early.”

Other than the weather-related obstacles, Blanchard has not minded the new dining options.

She said that having the chance to use meal swipes at more restaurants has been especially helpful at the end of the semester.

“I do like a lot more of the equivalencies in a lot of other places …
It’s nice because we’re all running out of Flex at this point,” Blanchard said.

Amaya Miller, sophomore speech language pathology major, said that it has been confusing to find out where the new food stations are placed.

“I had to ask a bunch of questions of where everything else was, so it was kind of hard to navigate where all the options were from where they used to be,” Miller said.

Miller recounted an experience when she was directed to a different station on A Walk because there weren’t any condiments where she was eating.

Despite the initial difficulty, she said that it’s been easier since she joined an Instagram chain with the menu items for each day and started paying more attention to signs around campus directing students to food stations.

Sophomore biomedical engineering and nursing student Claire Rickard, noted that along with having more meal swipes per day, students no longer have to wait at least an hour in between swipes.

She said that she hopes parts of the modified plan get carried over to next year instead of going back to the normal restrictions.

“I’m really enjoying this meal plan … I think that it would be really nice to not have that time limit and maybe adjust how many we can use a day,” Rickard said.

SGA president Mwango Kasuba said that dining and meal plan concerns will be addressed during his presidency.

“We’re going to work with president-elect [David] Dausey … just seeing how we can just overall improve the dining experience going into my administration,” Kasuba said. “We’re going to try to take the feedback from things that are happening right now with the Hogan renovations and seeing how many meal swipes would actually be effective.”

He added that the adjusted meal plan continuing through the rest of the semester has been a great way to get people outside and connected with the community.

“I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback. I think people enjoy, especially with the warm weather, all the food trucks being outside,” Kasuba said.

Kaitlyn Hughes contributed to this report.

Nataley Davis can be reached at davisn5@duq.edu