*Note: This individual has been given a pseudonym to protect their relationship with their colleagues, faculty, and maintenance and service workers. 

From social media posts to whispered conversations, rumblings about convenience dining have been circulating through Wellesley College’s campus. As a result of the changes made to convenience dining areas policies around campus, students are examining their dining options more critically. The changes in convenience dining policies include the 2 p.m. cutoff, the restriction of certain food items and the one-meal-per-dining time rule.

The Leaky Beaker, located on the first floor of the Science Center and open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., is one of the most popular convenience dining spots around campus. At the Leaky Beaker, students with valid Wellesley OneCards are allowed to choose between either a cup of soup, a sandwich, or a salad, and can purchase Peet’s Coffee and a variety of grab-and-go snacks and beverages. When students walk into the Leaky Beaker, they are met with signs stating that free options for students are kept in a certain refrigerator. Food taken from the other larger refrigerator is charged full price, and can be paid for with Flex Dollars, points, cash or credit cards. The most recent change in signage states that student to-go meals are no longer allowed to be purchased after 2 p.m. and that students are only allowed to choose either a cup of soup, one sandwich, or one salad per meal time.

Cyd Abnet, previous Wellesley student who now attends Clark University, reflected on her time consuming convenience meals from the Leaky Beaker. Abnet said that her experiences were always disappointing. 

“It was frustrating to me a lot of the time, the way that things were priced,” said Abnet. “I’m not made of money. Most of my memories were just thinking like, ‘Oh, I could’ve got this in the dining hall with a swipe, but I paid for it here.’”

Abnet noted that, although Bates dining hall is closest to the Science Center, the building that contained most of her classes, she did not always have the time nor energy to travel with her packed schedule and back-to-back classes.

“The dining halls have a really specific set of hours that they actually serve food,” said Abnet. “I would find myself going hungry a lot because I [didn’t] have the energy to walk and didn’t feel like spending a lot of money at the Leaky Beaker or Emporium to get food outside of dining hall hours.”

As a student of Wellesley until spring semester of 2022, Abnet was able to experience some of the policy changes but transferred from Wellesley before experiencing the new 2 p.m. cutoff policy. 

In response to the information about the change, Abnet gasped.

“They’re restricting food access for students. That’s not okay,” said Abnet. “I now go to Clark in Worcester. [Clark’s] dining hall is open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and you can get food during those hours the entire time. I understand that this system is probably expensive, however, Wellesley has a pretty big endowment and I’m kind of confused on what they are spending it on. There needs to be expanded dining hours because, for the health and wellbeing of the students, they need to eat food. And people have classes back-to-back and [classes] can take up the whole lunch period. That could leave someone without a meal. [Wellesley students] are paying for unlimited dining, so the hours need to be expanded.”

“I am a better person when I am not hungry, and I wish they were able to support students in being their best selves. I think it’s a failure of their system to essentially restrict food access,” said Abnet.

The Emporium, located on the second floor of the Campus Center, is the other convenience dining area, offering similar refreshments and meals with the same policies as the Leaky Beaker. The biggest difference between the Leaky Beaker and the Emporium is the Starbucks facilities located within the Emporium, where students can spend their Flex Dollars, points or personal budget on Starbucks snacks and beverages.  The Emporium also has a bigger selection of items available for purchase compared to the Leaky Beaker, ranging from ice cream and frozen meals to toiletries and snacks. Emporium hours are from Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and ‍Saturday to Sunday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Current Wellesley student Wendy* shared that her encounters with convenience dining on campus were frustrating. A particularly memorable experience for Wendy involved her getting a sandwich from the Emporium after class in the Keohane Sports Center, running to the Science Center for class, then sitting down to eat in the space around the Leaky Beaker after. When Wendy attempted to warm up her sandwich in the panini maker located in the Leaky Beaker, the staff member scolded her for taking the sandwich without showing her OneCard. After a lengthy explanation of what happened and where she got the sandwich, the staff member did not believe Wendy, so she discarded the sandwich so she could leave without creating more of a fuss and rushed to her next class. 

“I totally understand why they want us to swipe, so students who aren’t on the dining plans won’t take things that aren’t being paid for,” said Wendy. Wendy went on to note that although the policy makes sense, her situation was hard to understand because the attendant wanted her to get back in the long line for an item she didn’t receive from the Leaky Beaker in the first place. 

“It’s just very frustrating to me because everyone has very limited time, but if there is a very long line, no one really benefits from it,” said Wendy.

Wendy also finds the rule about taking one item per meal time as unreasonable.

“If you’re trying to mimic a more convenient dining hall situation, then you’re not going to limit [things] and tell people that they can only take a sandwich and not a soup in a dining hall, and because our meal plan granted us unlimited access, it just doesn’t make sense,” said Wendy. “Overall, if [the College] increased the quantity of meals in the popular convenience spots, it might solve the problem of extravagantly long lines at Bates.”

Wendy even touched on the idea of the waste produced by convenience dining places on campus. 

“It would make more sense to reallocate the stuff from the paid section [of the Leaky Beaker] into the free section, if no one takes it by the end of the day, so it doesn’t go to waste. I feel like [the Leaky Beaker] must have some kind of waste from the unconsumed food in the paid section,” Wendy said.