As students returned to SUNY Oswego in a staggered format in order to limit the spread of COVID-19, they came back to disappointing news: Littlepage Dining Hall would be closed for the entire semester. A little over a week later, on Tuesday, Feb. 2, President Deborah Stanley announced the reopening of Littlepage with limited hours.
Students experienced long lines and wait times to get their food the first week back, resulting in many complaints and the creation of a change.org petition. Sophomore Alyssa Scheib started the petition, citing the long lines and walks “across campus in frigid temperatures,” as the reasons behind the request.
“After all the students came back, it was ridiculous the amount of students waiting in line to get a meal,” Scheib said. “[It was] honestly not up to par like Auxiliary Services said it would be.”
Within a week, the petition gained significant traction. Over 835 students signed it. The massive lines were serious concerns for the students who could not maintain adequate social distancing. These lines led to exceptionally long wait times, with students waiting for more than 30 minutes to get their food. Despite the long lines, SUNY Oswego’s Interim General Manager of Auxiliary Services Stephen McAfee said the decision was based on forecasted student demand and data from the fall semester.
“We presented it based upon the expected population and the change of that,” McAfee said. “The numbers dropped precipitously, and we proposed [the closure] to [Stanley]. Her president’s council reviewed it based upon the information we had at the time and collectively it was decided we would close it.”
McAfee mentioned that he saw some “concerning” trends on Thursday, Jan. 28, when most on-campus students returned. Despite these trends, the number of on-campus students is not higher than what was expected, hovering around the normal 3,800 mark.
Prior to the start of the semester, Student Association was unaware of the plan to close Littlepage, according to SA President, Lizeth Ortega-Ramirez, who also released an open letter to Auxiliary Services and Stanley on Sunday, Jan. 31.
“The limited on-campus dining services have caused a lot of students to breach the COVID-19 safety guidelines. This is a direct result of the very long lines that have been created during the limited dining hall serving hours,” the letter stated. “As representatives of the student body, we would like to ask you and Auxiliary Services to take immediate action to alleviate the safety concerns of the students.”
One day later, Stanley, McAfee, Ortega-Ramirez and SA Vice President Asheem Calixte met to discuss the issues at hand. Ortega-Ramirez described the Zoom meeting as a “productive one.”
By the end of the meeting, Stanley emailed all students, announcing the reopening of Littlepage within one day, on Feb. 2. Littlepage will offer lunch on Monday through Friday from 12-3 p.m. Dinner will be served from 5-8 p.m. On the weekends, brunch will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The reopening itself was a challenge for Auxiliary Services as they did not have all of the food items available for Littlepage from their supplier. As a result, McAfee said that his team was driving to suppliers to get items like bread as snow was falling. While it typically takes five days to fully reopen, McAfee and his team got Littlepage ready in one because “[we] recognized we needed to do something.”
Stanley spoke glowingly of Ortega-Ramirez and Calixte as representatives of the student body. As of now, Ortega-Ramirez is hopeful that the new hours will “create a better dining experience for students.”
Scheib said she was satisfied with the resolution.
“We set out to open our dining hall for a safer and easier way to eat on campus,” Scheib said. “We are happy with what we got.”
Mackin Dining remains closed like last semester as it is connected to the isolation and quarantine residence halls. Those halls provide students with delivered food options.
While Littlepage did add hours, both McAfee and Ortega-Ramirez welcome students to reach out. McAfee suggested that students email him if they have more concerns regarding dining on-campus, while Ortega-Ramires promised to continue to advocate for students.
“Students should know that if they are still finding problems with the current plan our doors are always open to hearing their concerns,” Ortega-Ramirez said. “We have not heard of any complaints from students or parents, however we are staying vigilant of any new developments.”
Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian
