The Stevenson Retail Dining Center is not up to par in comparison to other NIU dining halls. The retail style dining of Stevenson isn’t as good as the other dorms and should change to a buffet style. 

Stanley Collier, a first-year business major, believes it’s inconvenient for Stevenson to be closed on weekends.

“I don’t like how to close early on the weekends,” Collier said. “Also how to not open on Sunday because what if it’s cold outside on Sunday? I gotta walk all the way to New Hall just to grab some food.”

Residents living in Stevenson having to pay more than Neptune is ridiculous, especially since Stevenson’s dining hall isn’t open all week. 

A double room in Stevenson is $6,183 and Neptune is $5,867, according to Housing and Residential Services. Neptune’s dining hall is open from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 7 p.m. to 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Friday. On weekends, Neptune dining is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Stevenson residents pay more for housing, so they should be able to get food all throughout the week and not deal with the inconvenience of early closing times.

It’s also unfair how the Stevenson Dining Center closes at 6 p.m. on Saturday and isn’t open on Sundays, according to Campus Dining Services. Students living at Stevenson have to leave their building and go to Neptune or Patterson.

Because of Stevenson’s retail-style dining hall, there is room for mistakes when it comes to ordering, such as not getting the food you wanted and missing items. 

John Boswell, director of retail dining, says mistakes in customer service are common at the Stevenson Retail Dining Center. 

“One of the things that we’re really proud of on-campus dining and Stevenson is that we hire a diverse staff,” Boswell said. “For us that disruptive staff comes with a little bit of a language barrier, which we work on and try training. That’s a big part of why orders get mistaken, get messed up.”

Boswell also says that one of the reasons Stevenson is a retail dining area is because it gives students more of a choice and the ability to customize their own meals.

“One of the main reasons why we have it as retail is to give students a choice in variety,” Boswell said.

But that variety can also contribute to the dining center’s plethora of mistakes.

“The other reason why is because so much of our stuff is customizable,” Boswell said. “That’s what’s great about Stevenson, why people like it, but that’s what’s also can lead to more mistakes.” 

Besides, you could argue students get more options at the other buffet style dorms due to their constantly changing options. The options Stevenson has are similar to the other dining halls, so it being a retail style hall doesn’t make it special. 

The other residence dining halls are better than the Stevenson Retail Dining Center; it’s not a matter of opinion.