Tenzin Jorden, Senior Photographer

Yale Hospitality will not have any residential college dining halls open over spring recess, a change from last year when four dining halls were open at no cost to students who stayed on campus. Dean of Yale College Pericles Lewis told the News that the change is due to the low number of students who tend to remain on campus over the break.

Yale Hospitality Senior Director Adam Millman wrote to the News that the University will be providing vouchers to low-income students who have a family share of up to $10,000 and who live on campus. The vouchers are daily $30 UberEats credits that are only eligible at establishments within a 15-mile radius of New Haven. They are non-transferable, and unused credits do not carry over to the next day.

Millman wrote, on behalf of the Yale College Dean’s Office, that approximately 1,800 eligible students were notified of the voucher on Feb. 9.

During spring recess, select Yale Hospitality retail locations will still be open, including The Elm, Steep Cafe, Cafe Med, Health Center Cafe, West Campus Cafe and School of Management locations. 

“There aren’t enough students staying over spring break to make it feasible for the dining halls to stay open,” Lewis said. “We added one day of opening on either end [of spring break], because based on last year’s numbers that were like 700 students around, and we’re going to continue to study whether we can have one dining hall open in the future.”

Lewis explained that in the middle of spring break last year, only 200 to 300 students were eating in the dining halls, and the meal plan is not designed to support student meals over spring recess. 

Select dining halls will be open at the beginning and end of spring recess, when more students are back on campus — on March 9 and 10, and on March 22 and 23. All residential college dining halls will reopen on March 24 with brunch service. 

Yale College Council, or YCC, dining policy team director Benjamin Gervin ’26 wrote to the News that he has worked on crafting a survey to assess how many students plan to stay on campus over the break. After he receives these results, Gervin wrote, he intends to use them as quantitative evidence to explain to Yale Hospitality why they should leave some dining halls open over the break.

YCC deputy dining policy director Esha Garg ’26 wrote that she and Mimi Papathanasopoulos ’26, the YCC health and accessibility director, wrote an open letter to University administrators on the dining hall closures.

The letter stated that the lack of dining hall availability will “disproportionately affect international and low-income students who stay on campus,” as well as student-athletes with mandatory team commitments. Garg and Papathanasopoulos also wrote that the $30 UberEats credit is not enough to cover three meals for one day, especially with additional fees UberEats adds on orders.

Lewis said that while “$30 is only $30,” the amount is “adequate” for students over the recess. He also mentioned that students can save money by ordering together or getting pickup versus delivery.

“The response back was positive and partially addressed our concerns: some dining halls will now be open until Sunday, March 10 and will reopen on Friday, March 22,” Garg wrote to the News. “This means that dining halls will now be open for 2 additional days! Additionally, the YCDO team has extended the vouchers to more students on financial aid – this means that approximately 1800 students will be eligible for vouchers while in New Haven.”

In addition, Garg said the YCC is working on providing grocery store stipends for international students, in collaboration with the Office of International Students and Scholars.

Last year, dining halls were initially planned to be open over spring recess for $37.08 per day, totaling $556.20 for the entire break. After students and the Yale College Council expressed concern over the price of meals, Hospitality informed students that four residential college dining halls — Branford, Saybrook, Grace Hopper and Jonathan Edwards colleges — were open at no cost to students through the break.

Last year, Lewis told the News that the Yale College Dean’s Office was essentially subsidizing the price of spring recess dining, as the meal plan does not cover November recess, winter recess and spring recess. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, students were required to pay a fee for meals over the break. 

Spring recess begins March 8 and classes resume on March 25.