Dining Hall

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

Move in date for upperclassmen is 8/24. Are the dining halls open starting 8/24 and if so, are those meals included in the meal plan?

2

See Fall Semester 2016: http://hospitality.yale.edu/dining-halls-operating-schedule-2016-2017.

Dining halls open to upperclass students on August 30th. That means upperclass students are on their own until then. The is where I think Yale Dining screws the kids, they invite you to move in almost a week before they feed you.

3

I am a big fan of most things Yale. Yale Dining is the exception. It was much much better 4 years ago. The penny pinching move to cook centrally and reheat locally is a mess. Silver lining? DS is in an apartment, and has learned to cook :slight_smile:

4

^ This is sad. In my time as an undergrad, we felt the dining halls and the individual managers did quite a bit to provide top notch food & service & variety. People complained but when I saw what others had at their universities, I shut up.

5

^ When DS was a student at YYGS ~ 4 years ago, he loved eating at the dining hall. By the time he matriculated 2 years ago, he felt more ambivalent about the food. For example, he found well made eggs for breakfast only at a few of the dining halls. Last year, he said it was a ripoff. This year, he has learned how to make his own eggs :slight_smile:

ETA: re other schools, S at Skidmore has much better dining.

6

FWIW: In 2013, Yale faced a $39 million deficit and choose to balance it’s budget by cutting the quality of food and the number of days the dining halls would be open to students. Prior to 2013, Yale dining was pretty good!

7

Yale has almost unlimited resources. Fwiw, we had been donating to Yale, but chose to divert our donation to DS’s off-campus meal purchases (on an ad-hoc basis, but still).

Yale’s endowment is $25.57 Billion. A $39 Million shortfall is roughly 15 basis points (0.0015) of the endowment.

8

@IxnayBob: You are preaching to the choir, but . . . . http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/07/11/commons-to-end-hot-breakfast/

9

@gibby, we agree. It is unfortunate.

I am serious about the silver lining of DS learning to cook. I have been a SAHD for more than a decade, and while I am not a great cook, I think it’s good (especially for a male) to be able to enjoy putting food on the table.