At 12 a.m. on a weekend night, gaggles of college students prowl campus streets. They are tired from a long week of academics, they are looking to unwind and, most likely, they are hungry.
However, at KSC, they are unlikely to find any options. The Zorn Dining Commons closes at 7:30 p.m. each night. The Young Student Center closes at 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and at 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. The dining options in the center like Lloyd’s Marketplace and the Night Owl Café are of course closed by then as well. These limited options put hungry nightlifers in a tough position where they must scrounge for food.
There are off-campus options open later in the night, like fast food joints and chain restaurants. If they are desperate, students may also resort to using DoorDash, UberEats or some similar food delivery service.
However, off-campus options can be more difficult for students to access, especially those who do not have cars. Delivery apps tack on additional fees that inflate the cost of an order from what it would normally be. These are decent last resorts but they are not a valid replacement for a proper campus dining experience.
From the school’s perspective, these alternatives should not be considered valid either. KSC is not going to make a cent from students ordering DoorDash. It would be mutually beneficial for the school to provide a late-night option, making it more surprising no such option exists presently.
To contrast, UNH has two dining locations that fill the nighttime market. Philbrook Café is open from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. from Tuesday to Saturday, and the Wildcatessen is open the same hours from Sunday to Wednesday, according to the university’s website. UNH students up at a late hour need not worry they will be left without a place to eat.
Admittedly, UNH may have an easier time providing such options being a bigger school with more staff. However, there may be simple solutions to this.
One solution could be to add a late-shift option to on-campus dining. A space like the Hoot-N-Scoot would be ideal for this because it has its own dedicated entrance and limited hours that could easily be turned from a weakness to a strength by shifting them to a time when nothing else is open. A later shift could also be an opportunity for students who need work to help pay for their education but do not have time to work during regular daytime hours.
Admittedly, this would require some reworking of schedules and a reliance on student labor. It is also true that the majority of Keene State’s dining is managed by the third-party company Chartwells, and I believe the school would be reasonable to avoid stepping on any toes with regard to that relationship. Using one of the campus’s usual dining spaces is not the only option, however.
The 2020s so far have ushered in the era of the food truck, according to an article by Kerry Hannon for The New York Times. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about the need for alternate means of keeping the restaurant industry alive and running. Food trucks are mobile, requiring less travel and demand relatively little contact between server and customer.
The food truck model has a presence in Keene already with local businesses like Salt & Lime and Yahso Jamaican Grille making their trucks available around town. Food trucks such as these are familiar and valuable presences in our community.
I believe school leadership could find owners of food truck businesses in the area and propose a deal with them: If they register evening time slots at a designated central place on campus, they can park their truck and do business during that time if the college gets a cut of the profits. The specifics of time slots and percentages could be dealt on a case-by-case basis between college officials and the individual business owners.
This would be a way to keep Keene State students comfortably fed and the college afloat while supporting local businesses in the process. A solution like this would benefit all parties involved, which is why it is baffling to me that the problem still exists at all. A full, content student is not only part of a successful business model; they are also part of a successful community.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
