Food Gallery returns

Fifty-six days into the school year, Dining Services has finally relented: The Gallery, which has been closing at 10 p.m. this semester, will remain open until 3 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Pizza, which was previously moved to Café Viv, and "grab-and-go" items like Snapple will once again be available in the downstairs dining area. The Gallery will continue to close at 10:30 p.m. on weekdays, and these items will be moved upstairs to Café Viv after hours.

Though many of us look back nostalgically on the days when the Gallery was open late all week, the recent policy change is a reasonable compromise. It can be quite costly for Dining Services to keep the Gallery open when few students are using the space; on weekdays, when student use of the Gallery has traditionally been low, it makes sense to consolidate costs by moving snacks and pizza to Café Viv.

But the Gallery has been, in recent years, a central gathering place for students on the weekends, and when the Gallery began closing early this semester, many students voiced their unhappiness with the change. Apparently Dining Services has paid attention to these complaints (as their own signs proudly proclaim: "You spoke ... we listened!"). It is certainly refreshing to see that student opinion can have an impact on some aspect of University policy, even if it's just related to social spaces and pizza-availability. As a board, we wish to thank Dining Services for listening to students' concerns, and we encourage them to continue to do so in the future.

But for now, we look forward to the return of Saturday nights spent eating greasy pizza and watching our drunk friends stumble down the Frist staircase.