Chartwells, the new food service provider on campus, is fine-tuning its service to meet students’ needs and requests in the first few weeks of the school year.

There have been both positive and negative comments from students regarding the menu and overall set up of the meal options.

“The last three years, there has basically been four options for food on campus,” senior Alex Wright said. “There was the Grill, the express buffet at the Grill, Pfeiffer and the grab-and-go express option at Pfeiffer. Now there are only the two options, Pfeiffer and the express in Hopper. While it’s not necessarily Chartwells’ fault, there are still too long of lines at both of these places.”

New this year is the longer, continuous hours that the dining hall will be open.

“Chartwells has extended the dining facility hours at Pfeiffer Hall from 7a.m. to 9 p.m. to help with the traffic and availability of food for students,” Director of Catering Kathleen McHale said.

These extended hours are not sufficient for some students as they feel there are not as many options when they go to the dining hall outside regular meal times.

“I went to Pfeiffer right before 11 one day, hoping I could beat the rush,” senior Emily Adams said. “There was hardly any food available. I had to ask them to unwrap some sandwich meat and they did but it would be nice to have some hot food out too. Part of the convenience of having extended hours is having options and without them, it’s pointless.”

Students are starting to form ideas for Chartwells to keep up with the needs of the campus community.

“I think Chartwells should have something set up like what was available at the Grill, where students could order a hamburger or a chicken sandwich not during regular meal times,” Adams said. “It’s not that hard to throw a patty on the grill and cook it for five minutes and it would give people something hot to eat instead of just the salad bar.”

According to some students an area for them to place suggestions would be appreciated as well.

“It would help if there was a suggestion box or questionnaires available for people to fill out,” Wright said. “That would benefit Chartwells in knowing what we want to eat and how to cater to our needs better.”

There will be that option for students to voice their opinion soon.

“Starting next month, we will be holding a dining committee with a date and time to be determined,” McHale said “Chartwells encourages everyone to join. We will discuss upcoming events in the dining hall and on campus and also discuss menu items and ideas that the students or faculty may have.”