RPS opens more dining halls

As the second round of four-week summer classes began June 3, several residential dining halls re-opened their doors. Due to the low number of students who stay on campus for the first four-week summer session, few residential dining halls remain open.

“Because there are so fewer people on campus during the summer, we see a drop-off in business,” Sara Ivey-Lucas, assistant director for housing assignments within Residential Programs and Services, said. “When summer conference activity picks up, usually around June 1st … then (business) picks up significantly.”

According to the RPS website, it is RPS’ mission to, “bring the academic life of the University into the student’s living environment by providing a residential experience which best meets the educational and developmental goals of our residents outside the classroom, enabling them to succeed inside the classroom.”

During the first summer session, Eigenmann’s dining hall is the only fully operational dining hall on campus, in addition to Campus Cafes and other small locations in Ballantine, the Herman B Wells Library, and others.

In an email, Sandra Fowler, director of residential dining services, said visitors to RPS dining halls are more varied than they are during the traditional academic year.

During the summer, IU hosts many athletic camps and conferences which depend on RPS to provide lunch for their participants.

“In addition, of course, we have summer school students living with us and commuters using our cafes while attending class,” she said.

Because of the varied clientele, the menus of some dining halls, especially those at McNutt, the Gresham Food Court at Foster and the Edmonton Dining Hall at Collins, become tailored specifically to the needs of groups on campus. Some dining halls create weekly menus which are repeated throughout the summer session.

“During the academic year, our menu is much more varied and doesn’t repeat itself on a daily or weekly basis like that,” Ivey-Lucas said.

Shelby Plummer, an RPS student supervisor who worked at Collins last summer, said she noticed significant changes to the menu.

“Traditional dining is kind of hit or miss, especially with some of the menu options they have, because we are a vegan and vegetarian-friendly dorm,” she said. “but we offered less of those over the summer.”

Meanwhile, the dining halls at Eigenmann and Wright food courts typically remain the same as they are during the spring and fall semesters.

In addition to different customers and different menus, employment at RPS is also different during the summer.

While some RPS employees stay on during the summer, the type of work they do isn’t the same as it is during the fall and spring semesters.

Plummer, who works at Collins during the academic year, said she will be working at Eigenmann and Wright this summer instead. She also added that many RPS employees leave for the summer.

“There’s definitely not as many people looking for jobs, or looking to keep their RPS jobs through the summer, because a lot of people do go home,” she said.
In an email, Fowler said RPS employees who stay on for the summer generally work different hours.

“Of course, the hours staff are scheduled changes greatly,” she said, “because all operations close by 9 p.m. instead of 2 a.m. during the academic year.”

According to the website, the Dining Room at McNutt and the Gresham and Wright food courts will have opened this week with adjusted hours to better accommodate on-campus groups.

The Bistro at Read will open next week.