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By Marion Wise

Daily Bruin Contributor

Despite the inconvenience for residents of Hedrick Hall and Hitch Suite, Hedrick dining facility may discontinue serving breakfast spring quarter due to low student attendance.

While Dining Services administrators continue to weigh the options, students and Hedrick personnel are upset they weren’t notified of the possible change in a timely manner so they could offer their input.

“We’re not firm yet,” said Charles Wilcots, assistant director of Dining Services. “We are looking at how we can maximize efficiency.”

But first-year undeclared student and Hedrick resident Alanya Blake said Dining Services should notify students of the possible change.

“The dining hall people won’t tell us that they might close Hedrick for breakfast until spring quarter because they think that students are less likely to protest if they don’t find out until then,” Blake said. “It’s my guess that it’ll happen.”

On average, fewer than 200 students eat breakfast at Hedrick each morning, compared with more than 700 at Covel Commons.

Wilcots said that because of these low numbers, Dining Services is considering closing Hedrick for a three-month trial, while extending Rieber’s breakfast hours until 10 a.m. and maintaining Covel and Puzzles’ Eatery’s morning hours.

Currently, Hedrick and Rieber serve breakfast from 7-9 a.m. Covel is open 7 to 10 a.m., and Puzzles is open 7-10:45 a.m.

Though students will still have several options for breakfast, students such as Hedrick Dining and Environment Board Representative Jill Alderson are disappointed that Dining Services is considering closing Hedrick’s breakfast services.

“I can understand why they’re doing this, but I think they need to find a different solution to help us at Hedrick,” Alderson said. “To me, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it means getting a sack lunch, instead of spending $7 on campus.”

Hedrick’s dining and environment board, which addresses issues regarding dining, housekeeping and maintenance, did not discuss the possible closure of Hedrick for breakfast at its most recent meeting on March 5.

At the time of the meeting, Hedrick’s dining manager, who facilitates the dining portion of the meeting, had no specific knowledge that Hedrick might not serve breakfast, according to Alderson. Alderson learned of the possible closure from her floor’s external vice president, who discussed it at the Hedrick Hall Association meeting that night.

In later discussions with Hedrick’s dining manager, Alderson heard the staff had no input in Hedrick’s possible closure.

“He’d been hearing about it, but it was supposed to be hush-hush,” Alderson said.

“He said that his staff is upset by it, because a lot of people like the morning shift,” she continued. “It wasn’t like they decided – it was decided for them. They had no say.”

Even if Hedrick does not serve breakfast next quarter, Wilcots said the dining staff will not change.

“It doesn’t affect employment at all,” Wilcots said. “We’ll shift our employee-base.”

Stephanie Elson, who was employed by Dining Services in November and worked at Hedrick since the beginning of March, learned of the possible change in a letter Dining Services sent employees early last week.

“They just said that they’re not going to be open for breakfast anymore,” Elson said.

“I think they’re going to switch everyone’s hours around,” she continued.

Although Dining Services had no direct input from students or staff in making their decision, it meets with the Policy Review Board weekly to discuss situations affecting students.

The PRB is comprised of student representatives from each residence hall, and the heads of the dining, housing and maintenance divisions.

Third-year computer science student Jakub Oleksy, who chairs the PRB, said the board gives input to Dining Services, but is not directly involved in the decision-making process.

“Dining will probably make their decisions based on the numbers,” Oleksy said. “Even if they do change it, I won’t say that it’s final. Dining’s always really good at listening to what we need. They’re really looking out for the best interest of everybody.

“In the long run, it might be very beneficial, but if it’s not, I’m sure that dining and PRB will do everything they can,” Oleksy continued.

Wilcots agreed, saying Dining Services aim to please students.

“We’re pretty committed to our guests,” Wilcots said. “Currently, residents on The Hill can eat between 7 a.m. to midnight.”

Though she understands the view of Dining Services, Alderson said she hopes they will listen to student perspectives.

“My impression is that we do have a say in the final outcome, but as of right now, I think they’d be more inclined to stick with their initial choice,” Alderson said. “From a business standpoint, their decision makes sense, but from a student’s viewpoint, it’s unfair.”

AVERAGE NUMBER OF STUDENTS AT BREAKFAST Original by JACOB LIAO/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by HERNANE TABAY/Daily Bruin Senior Staff