The New Extended Levee Hours Makes Getting Food a Lengthy Time Commitment

By Julian Nazario Copy Editor, News Editor

Sorry, but the new Levee hours don’t make much (if any) sense.

During spring break, Stags Hospitality announced on their Instagram page that the student-favorite, The Levee, would be expanding its hours of operation to stay open until 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and thus establishing itself as Fairfield’s late-night food destination. However, not many people, myself included, noticed that the additional 30 minutes of operations would result in the Levee opening at 5 p.m., six hours less of operation during weekdays. This is a bad trade.

I have to say this before going further into my rant: I like the idea of having a true “late-night” food option on campus, just not at the expense of eliminating their lunch offerings.

At a recent Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) Senate meeting, they were talking about how they were working with Matthew Dinnan, Vice President for Auxiliary Services, to change the hours of operation of The Levee. Like everyone else there, I was also really excited about the idea of having a food option open until midnight even if they wouldn’t accept meal swipes. Sometimes you just need to have a slice of pizza to stop your stomach from making weird noises that alert you about how hungry you are!

Another reason why I’m so opposed and conflicted about these new Levee hours is that there has been an increase in the waiting lines and times to order that only started right after spring break. For example, last week I went to the Levee on Monday and Tuesday at around the same time (9 p.m.)

just to find the line at the front door and the waiting period being almost half an hour. I honestly don’t know whether it is because of a possible lack of workers, students deciding to go, once again, at the same time to eat, or if it is a consequence of students going to The Levee for dinner because they cannot enjoy lunch in the best dining place on campus.

One thing has to be clear: there shouldn’t be any change without consulting the whole student body, not only the FUSA senators in one committee.

Another thing that should also be clear … we need The Levee to go back to its previous hours of operation if that guarantees that it will remain open for lunch and ensure that the line goes back to an acceptable length.