University Dining Services is temporarily allowing undergraduates to use C-meals in the Java City café in the Schneider Building of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management to help alleviate overcrowding of the dining halls in the Usdan Student Center during lunch hours, according to a Student Union press release last Sunday.Dining Services will also work to increase ready-to-go hot meal options in Usdan Café and the Provisions on Demand Market in response to overcrowding, Union President Andy Hogan '11 said.

Students can currently use C-Meals on preapproved items at the P.O.D. Market, the Kosher Express in Sherman and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

Students will be able to buy coffee, croissants, bagels, sandwiches, soups and salads at Java City with C-meals, according to the press release sent on Sunday by Union Director of Communications Sydney Reuben '10.

Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he had discussions with Director of Dining Services Mike Newmark about adding more options to the salad bar in Usdan.

Newmark could not be reached by press time.

Hogan said he brought up concerns about overcrowding with Collins last week.

Collins added that he "observed lines that seemed a little too long on occasion, and a few students commented to me directly." He wrote that at the moment he is not considering any other additional options to alleviate the problem of crowding.

"[This action] is almost solely motivated by the overcrowding on campus with 100 more students and 100 more coming in the next three years," Hogan said. "We need to prepare for all of these students, so one immediate step is having Schneider in Heller be more accessible to undergraduate students."

Hogan said the measure was temporary because "we don't want undergraduate students taking over Schneider and Heller, because it's in a graduate building."

He said the Union was continuing to think about more long-term solutions to make dining more efficient.

"We have to be careful what we do. We can't jump into something that's too big, but also we have to acknowledge that there is a problem and think of ways to fix it," Hogan said.

The Union will work to publicize the new options by placing signs pointing to Heller, Hogan said.

"We don't want every single undergraduate student going there. . Instead of swarming Usdan, some of them will go to Usdan, [and] some of them will go to Heller. . It's not a fix-all solution; it's a start," he said.

"I don't think people will actually go to Heller for meals, because the selection is so limited," Hilla Shimshoni '10 said.

"The dining room itself isn't crowded, but the lines for the registers are. It would help if they opened up more registers," Ayal Weiner-Kaplow '11 said.



-Liz Posner contributed

reporting