Brandeis welcomed students back for their fall semester a couple weeks ago, greeting students with a few different changes. The most pressing and divisive of these seems to be the removal of breakfast in Usdan, the dining hall most convenient for students living in North Campus. The alternative offering seems meager: You can use one of your few weekly meal exchanges to get a breakfast at The Hive. Compared to the variety of options that Usdan offered during its breakfast hours, The Hive’s scrambled eggs, bacon and vegetables does not serve as a comparable replacement. Though this may not strike some students as an issue worthy of discussion, using an arguably coveted meal exchange for breakfast or trekking down to Sherman for breakfast are not appealing options for many students. 

Prior to this change, Usdan’s availability in the mornings acted as the difference between being properly fed or going to class hungry. While Dunkin’ does still operate at the same hours, spending points or money out-of-pocket for breakfast is not an option for many students, especially in the long-term. This change has led to a less flexible dining experience for students. For a student living in North, Skyline or East on a five meal-exchange plan (the minimum required plan for students in corridor-style dorms), having to ration meal exchanges to eat breakfast every morning means giving up the ability to use their meal exchanges with any flexibility. Students may not be able to spend a meal exchange at any of the restaurants in The Hive later in the day, at Louis’ Deli, The Stine or even at Einstein, assuming they need to use one for breakfast everyday. Part of the value in meal exchanges means not having to worry about splitting time between a meal and other responsibilities, which is an extremely appealing option for students who have back-to-back classes during mealtimes.

This change in Usdan’s schedule puts students living far away from Sherman in a worse dining situation: Either be late to class, skip breakfast or give up all your meal exchanges to eat the most important meal of the day. Not only is this change damaging to the health and wellbeing of students, it’s also entirely unfair to students who have no choice but to spend their meal exchanges on a meal that students living elsewhere on campus don’t have to worry about. This Editorial Board calls for a reconsideration of this change — being a college student is stressful enough. Instituting breakfast back at Usdan would ease the stress of having to choose between losing a meal exchange and not eating at all.