The Ithaca College Student Governance Council met Sept. 15 to speak to Reginald Briggs — senior director of Dining Services — about issues with food services on campus.
Briggs presented a flyer to give clarity on all of the services offered on campus including both retail and residential options. This information aids first-year as well as returning students in clarifying food availability on campus.
“There’s literally some tweaks and operational changes in almost every unit,” Briggs said.
Notable changes include the limited meal swipe exchange hours at Towers Eatery, removal of both the paninis at the Dailies Cafe and build-your-own subs at Eleven Wall Cafe. Terrace Dining Hall is open until 10 p.m. for dinner, but now has limited hours and no longer serves breakfast. The locations that have not changed their services are Campus Center Dining Hall, Ithaca Bakery in IC Square and Vida Cafe in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.
Sophomore Abe Marron, senator-at-large, inquired about the changed schedule at Dailies Cafe in Roy H. Park Hall. He said this change affects the meal swipe exchanges available on campus during lunch time.
“I think people got accustomed to that with their schedule and when they try to get a meal exchange they can’t,” Marron said.
Briggs said closing during the lunch hours is intentional due to staffing issues and limited space to run facilities. The Dailies Cafe will not return to its previous hours.
Towers Eatery formerly had a late night meal swipe exchange program that no longer exists. This provided students with meal options after traditional residential dining hours ended. Towers Eatery has now stopped serving a meal swipe exchange menu at 2 p.m. and closes its retail menu at 10 p.m.
The limited hours at Towers Eatery is being combated by the Towers Concourse Market, located just below Towers Eatery, which will be opening after fall break from 6 p.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday. The space that previously held vending machines will now be staffed by two full time employees and student workers. Towers Concourse Market will accept meal swipe exchange.
“The Concourse Market is basically going to have the sub shop … and anything that was the top five sellers in the panini world at Park,” Briggs said.
The merging of these three food options answered many of the questions that were asked by the council.
First-year student Ari Medvinsky — a candidate running for senator-at-large — said to The Ithacan that communication from dining services to the general public was lacking.
“He articulated the changes very well in this meeting,” Medvinsky said. “But it did take me going to this meeting to find that out. So I think there’s still [a] definite lack of communication there that is causing this kind of emotion to be stirred among students.”
Briggs said this has been the worst September that he has had in his eight years at the college due to limited staffing so early in the year as well as having to alter almost every cafe. Briggs said that there is a larger student population than what the dining team was accommodating last year. He expressed sympathy for students’ confusion, but assured that issues were being addressed.
The council then reviewed four candidates for the council’s appropriations committee, senior Nikki Sutera, senate chair; junior Anabel Pimenta Velloso, varsity athlete senator; junior Eva Horst, vice president of campus affairs; and junior Isa Hernandez. They then began an executive session — limited to only members of the council — to confirm the candidates. All candidates were confirmed.
The council then discussed the Fall 2025 elections. Campaigning began Sept. 16 and voting through IC engage starts Sept. 18. The council will conduct tabling for the election in the Campus Center lobby on both Sept. 18 and 19.
The meeting ended with the council looking forward to the senate retreat — SGC’s one closed meeting of the year — taking place Sept. 22.
The SGC is the sole representative body for the Ithaca College student community. The SGC meets from 7-9 p.m. every Monday in the Taughannock Falls room of the Campus Center. The SGC can be contacted at [email protected].
