Late Night Dining is probably one of the best attributes of VSU. During the weekdays, many students are consumed by homework and burdened by a heavy schedule. I often experience this “homework overload” myself.  I enjoy the fact that I can leave my dorm at 3 a.m and receive a full course meal from Hopper Dining Hall. During the middle of the day, I can also make my way to Palms Dining Hall and receive a satisfying meal until 8 p.m. With that being said, the weekends are a bit of a different story.

 Although we are able to basically consume as much as we desire on Monday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday become days of an inevitable fast for a lot of students. If you manage to grab a bite to eat from Palms before 8, that will only hold you for so long. Unfortunately, Hopper is closed during weekends because it is consistently open on the weekdays. Once the sun rises on Saturday morning, you can kiss Hopper goodbye until the return of Monday.

 Although Palms is still in commission until later on at night, everyone is not going to be able to grab a bite to eat. I have often experienced a shortage of eating utensils, or a lack of enough food for all those within the dining hall.  Even if one does manage to receive a meal, there is an 11 hour period of time before you will be able to dine again. Surely, hunger will start to affect you before the morning comes.

 In my opinion, I feel that at least one of the dining halls should remain open for late night dining on the weekends. Some students are not privileged with an automobile so they cannot just simply drive to get something to eat. Late night weekend dining would save students money; they would not have to buy food from a restaurant. The dining halls would also be a great place to study on those late weekends when that big test is steadily approaching. Sometimes a student may grow weary of those four dorm walls and become tired of the endless mood of Odum library. The dining halls allow them to study right after or before they eat.

 Even if the dining halls cannot stay open all night on the weekends, an extended dining time would suffice. Instead of Hopper completely closing, they could serve meals until 3 a.m. This would give students only four hours until Palms opens their doors again for breakfast. A four hour wait is much more manageable than that of 11 hours. Students would be able to work more sufficiently and complete tasks a bit easier knowing that a hot meal is always literally around the corner.