Juli Bassett, a Fairfield University sophomore and member of the cross country team, wakes up on a Saturday morning at 8:00 for a meet. Her stomach is grumbling and she needs sufficient fuel before her race, but there is nowhere on campus for her to get food. Her best luck is a stale bagel she finds floating around her room.
Cross country runners, who run up to 50 miles a week, require good nutrition to fuel their workouts, and with the dining hours available on campus, this is a very difficult task.
It’s not a problem for athletes alone. If it’s a weekend morning before 10:00 a.m. or any day after 7:30 p.m., the dining hall is closed. Jazzman’s, The Levee and The Stag also have very limited hours. Students are forced to go off campus to get food and use their own money outside of their meal plan.
Sophomore Carolyn Kosewski, a non-athlete, shows that regular students would like to see expanded dining hall hours as well.
Kosewski said, “On Saturday mornings I would love to go to Barone, eat, study and then workout. It’s hard to focus on studying when my stomach is grumbling.”
Even the process of getting off campus to get food is tricky. Fairfield University students are not allowed to have a car on campus until junior year. So, if you’re a freshman or sophomore, you’re forced to pay for a cab or take advantage of the shuttle. The shuttle does not start running until 11:15 a.m. so on a Saturday morning, it does not offer much help for early morning eaters.
James Fitzpatrick, vice president of student affairs and the man who decides the hours of the dining hall, explained that finances are a major issue when deciding the hours. He says that for the amount of people that would take advantage of the dining hall earlier in the morning on weekends and later in the day are too few when compared to the amount of money it would cost to expand the hours.
An informal survey of 30 students found a majority of Fairfield students, 59 percent, said they would take advantage of using the dining hall before the normal opening time of 10:00 a.m. on weekends and take advantage of a coffee shop available for service on weekend mornings.
Dissatisfaction was seen in other areas too. 93.1 percent of students said they would take advantage of the dining hall if it were open later than 7:30 p.m. 80 percent of the students surveyed said they are not satisfied with the dining options at Fairfield University.
Although the survey results reveal otherwise, Fitzpatrick explained that the demand to expand dining hall hours has never been that great, saying, “the only people that have complained in the past are the cross country and baseball teams.”
However, Sacred Heart University provides a place for students to get food at hours as late as 3:00 a.m. on Thursday to Saturday nights. The university also has a dining hall open until 11:30 p.m. 7 days a week. A food court is available for students at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings. A Starbucks is also open in the library at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings and another coffee shop is open at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
If Bassett, our hungry cross country runner, traded her Fairfield uniform for a Sacred Heart one, she would be able to have an early Saturday morning breakfast before her competition.
Breakfast is commonly known as the most important meal of the day. Research has proven that people who eat breakfast within an hour of waking up have higher metabolisms and lower body weights.
Nutritionists recommend fueling our bodies multiple times per day, suggesting mini meals or snacks every 3-4 hours. If students are staying up to the early morning hours studying, their bodies require another healthy mini-meal or snack to keep their mind and body fueled.
Nutrition expert Joy Bauer says, “A morning meal can refuel your body after a night of rest, satisfy your appetite so you’re less likely to graze later, and prime you to make healthy food choices throughout the rest of your day.”
Unfortunately, for Fairfield students, they are out of luck for a substantial, protein-rich breakfast on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Instead, they’ll probably reach for a carbohydrate, fat and sugar-laden Pop-Tart that they get from the vending machine. And later on when they’re up late studying and need a snack, it will most likely be a call to Dominos for some greasy pizza. Freshman 15 anyone?
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