At the beginning of the Fall 2026 semester, Vassar students arrived back to campus to an altered dining schedule: Late Night hours at Gordon Commons were reduced, Express was shuttered on weekends and Street Eats, Vassar College’s food truck, was changed from a dinner to a lunch option.
According to Associate Dean of the College for Campus Activities Dennis Macheska, these changes were made to better align with student demand and to make the Campus Dining Services run more efficiently. Macheska explained to The Miscellany News that Street Eats’ new operational hours are meant to relieve pressure on The Retreat during lunch and take on Express’ former weekend hours. Late Night’s reduced hours are intended to simplify scheduling and operation. As of Aug. 31, Late Night, an after-dinner dining option at Gordon Commons, ends at 11 p.m. every night. In previous years, the dining option was open until midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
“The change to Late Night was not specifically a weekend reduction,” Macheska told the Miscellany. He also explained this in a campus-wide email on Aug. 26, writing, “This consistent schedule allows us to better align our resources and staffing while continuing to provide convenient late-night dining options for students throughout the week.”
There were other considerations for the change, according to Macheska. “We also considered the quality of life of our Dining employees,” he told the Miscellany. “A predictable 11:00 p.m. end time allows employees to have a more consistent schedule and know when they will be able to leave work and return home to their families. We believe that is an important consideration when determining how we structure Dining operations.”
No explanation was provided in the Aug. 26 email for Express’ closure on weekends. In an email to the Miscellany, Macheska explained, “Express’s weekend hours were adjusted as part of a broad effort to align Dining resources with student demand and operate the program more efficiently.” He reiterated that reasoning in his Sept. 15 campus-wide email. He also noted, as did Bon Appétit Resident District Manager Steve Scardina in an Aug. 30 campus-wide email, that Street Eats will offer to-go sandwiches and salads on weekends in addition to its usual fare to fill the gap left by Express.
The reasons for altering Street Eats’ schedule are twofold, Macheska explained. “First, the Retreat kitchen is relatively small and was not designed to produce the volume of food it has increasingly been expected to provide,” Macheska told the Miscellany. Secondly, changing Street Eats’ days of operation from Sunday through Thursday to Wednesday through Sunday takes into account the options provided by the Vassar Student Association’s Munchie Mondays and Tasty Tuesdays.
Students interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with Street Eats’ altered hours. One Street Eats employee told the Miscellany that the new hours would be an adjustment for students, and they expressed uncertainty over whether it would be successful or not.
“It’s too bad,” Ben Masur ’27 told the Miscellany. “There’s also probably more options for food at lunch, with Retreat and Express. It’s good to sort of offset that by having Street Eats at dinner.” Masur also noted that Street Eats’ altered hours means a lack of to-go options for dinner. “My Work Study job is usually a lot of evenings. Like, it’ll be 5:30 to 8 or whatever. So I’d get Street Eats and then eat it there, because I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to eat dinner.”
Though Macheska said that the Street Eats decision was at least partially based on feedback from students, faculty and staff, little explanation or warning was given in advance of the change. According to the Street Eats worker, staff were only informed of the change to Street Eats’ schedule 30 days before the semester began. The first all-campus email regarding the changes came from Macheska’s Aug. 26 email.
In his remarks to the Miscellany, Macheska added that changes to student dining options were not the only ones made. “We also made changes affecting faculty and administrative departments,” he wrote, “including adjustments to some catering costs and minimum spending requirements for full-service catering.”
These changes were all made in the face of rising food and labor costs, which, according to Macheska, have increased substantially in recent years. “Vassar subsidizes the Dining Program because meal-plan revenue does not cover the full cost of operating it,” Macheska said.
Though some students have hardly noticed these changes, for others they have had a real impact. “I am really mourning the loss of Street Eats for dinner,” said Ava Salvati ’28. “It was so nice to have it when I had late practices and didn’t want to go all the way to the Deece, or when I had a ton of work and wanted to grab something quickly. Also, I’m vegetarian, so having at least one other plant based option for dinner was great, because Root sucks sometimes.”
