Opinion: FAU’s Dining Hours Suck

If you don’t have some upperclassmen friends with a kitchen and groceries who know how to cook, have fun being forced to lose weight.

Interior+of+the+Atlantic+Dining+Hall+when+its+open.+Photo+by+Andrew+Fraieli+%7C+Opinions+Editor

Interior of the Atlantic Dining Hall when it’s open. Photo by Andrew Fraieli | Opinions Editor

Andrew Fraieli, Opinions Editor

FAU has cornered freshmen and everyone else with a meal plan, or without a car for that matter, into going hungry at night and on the weekends.

According to FAU’s website, the Atlantic Dining Hall — known more informally as “the caf” — opens at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast through 7:30 p.m. when dinner ends. Monday through Friday,  limited service is offered from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Limited service essentially means you get to fight other late-night eaters during the dinner rush for leftovers because food stops being cooked after 7:30 p.m.

On Saturdays and Sundays, breakfast is not served until 11 a.m. and the cafeteria closes at 7:30 p.m. with no limited service.

On their own these aren’t horrible, maybe the hours of a casual diner that serves breakfast, but this is a college campus. The cafeteria caters its hours like that of a normal restaurant-most students don’t exactly go to bed at 10 p.m. to wake up at 6 a.m. for their 9-to-5 job — how a normal restaurant seems to cater their hours.

But at least there’s some kind of food available at all hours for people to eat if they live on campus, right?

Well, the only option you have for food after 10 p.m. is subpar … I-I mean Subway, open until 2 a.m. and The Burrow’s burgers, chicken and fajitas until midnight.

On the other hand, Florida State University has 25 on-campus dining spots. FAU has 12.

While a handful of the spots at FSU are Starbucks and food stands like Outtakes, one is “The Den” — a 24-hour breakfast-all-day restaurant — and another is Chili’s. Literally an entire Chili’s, open everyday until 10 p.m. and midnight on Fridays, according to their website.

The University of Florida has a Starbucks that’s open 24 hours a day, five days a week. This accompanies the fact that its cafeteria is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.

The University of South Florida has a cafeteria open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends. Its Beef ‘O’ Brady’s restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, AND … wait for it, a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream that’s open until 1 a.m. every night of the week.

Other universities seem to realize the schedules and appetites of average college students — but FAU has not.

Freshmen residence halls don’t have kitchens like the upperclassman dorms do and yet, freshmen are required to have a meal plan. Unless they have a car to go out to eat every time they want a meal past 10 p.m. on weekdays or 7:30 p.m. on the weekends (except for subpar Subway) and feel like shelling out money, they’re out of luck.

FAU’s gym is free to use for enrolled students, but apparently it’s not enough for everyone to lose weight, they want to starve us a little too.