By
The Wildcat Opinions Board
Park Student Union is better servicing UA students by staying open later on the weekdays, until 11pm. Finally, Park decided to change the long-standing 8pm closing time. The later time was intended for students to study and provide food for students later in the evening.
While the upstairs dining hall will still be closed, the downstairs convenience store will stay open. According to Kathy Van Os, Dining Services Manager at Park Student Union, food from the dining hall will be packaged and sold in the convenience store.
Furthermore, Dominoes Pizza may stay open later if they are able to hire someone to cover the new shift.
Park Student Union's choice to stay open later is important and long overdue. Other food franchises ought to consider making the same decision, given how much demand there is from the student community.
A college student's life involves very little sleep. Late night studying, partying and other activities make for long nights. It therefore makes sense for Park Student Union to stay open later and provide food and study space for students. In order to best meet the needs of the students, campus facilities like Park Union ought to take into account this schedule when determining their opening and closing schedules.
Furthermore, it just makes good business sense. The demand is there. Students are always ready for a late-night snack, and dormitory vending machines don't always cut it. If students have a place to study that also provides a late-night snack, they are likely to take advantage of it.
The Union has not decided whether or not to stay open later on the weekends. While there have been some requests for this service as well, Van Os claims the facilities are not always available.
"There are many university-affiliated events held here in the union on Friday and Saturday nights, restricting the space," she said. "Besides, I don't know how much studying students really do on the weekends."
A later closing weekend closing time would be an added luxury. However, staying open on weekdays is probably more useful, considering that more studying and campus-area dining takes place during the weekdays.
Park Union's decision is particularly valuable considering how close it is to two large dormitories, Arizona-Sonora and Kaibab-Huachuca residence halls. The hundreds of students who live in these halls will undoubtedly appreciate Park Union's extension of its "office hours."
It is also valuable considering that Park Union is not anticipating extra profit from this initiative.
"We don't expect to get any financial benefit out of this," Van Os told the Wildcat earlier this week. "I hope that we do, but in the past there has been a request for later hours, and not many students took advantage of them."
This time, students ought to take advantage of Park Union's initiative. They are being provided a safe, comfortable place to study where they can also buy food. It beats the library, and it's better than a cramped dorm room as well.
Kudos to Park Student Union for extending its hours to 11pm. Hopefully, other local franchises will follow suit.
