By Marion Wise
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA Dining Services, in line with the wishes of many students,
agreed in late March to keep Hedrick Hall’s breakfast dining
services open spring quarter.
After considering a possible closure of the facility’s
morning hours due to low student attendance, officials decided to
keep it open in light of student demands based on a recent Dining
Services’ survey.
“We looked at data and student responses, and we had a
number of students request to (keep Hedrick open) for
breakfast,” said Connie Foster, associate director of
residential dining.
According to Dining Services, fewer than 200 students were
eating at Hedrick on average, which is open 7-9 a.m., in comparison
with more than 650 students at Puzzles Eatery, a
breakfast-on-the-go service open from 7-10:45 a.m.
But results of its Customer Satisfaction Surveys suggested that
students wanted Hedrick to remain open for breakfast.
The surveys were made available to students at all dining
facilities in the final two weeks of winter quarter. Students will
have opportunities to complete the surveys again this quarter, as
they will be available in all dining facilities twice more for
one-week periods.
First-year Hedrick Dining and Environment Board Representative
Jill Alderson said she is pleased with the decision to keep Hedrick
open for breakfast.
“It means that they listen to what we have to say.
It’s very reassuring,” said Alderson, a microbiology
and molecular genetics student.
“My initial reaction was that they shouldn’t (close
Hedrick) without asking our opinions first,” she continued.
“They should take our opinions into account, and they
did.”
Foster said responses to the survey had an impact on the final
decision.
“We just checked the comments,” Foster said.
“We encourage people to respond. We do read (the surveys) and
take them very seriously.”
Alderson agreed with Foster, saying student input likely played
a large role in the decision-making process.
“I feel it was the student opinions and student action
that turned this decision around,” Alderson said.
“This decision allows people to eat breakfast with the
people they’re used to. We’d eat breakfast by ourselves
if we went to another place,” she continued.
Dining Services has not made any decisions about the
facility’s hours of service for the 2001-02 school year.