As students return to campus and temperatures crawl to highs in the mid-30’s, they also return to New York City, where indoor dining has been barred for over a month since Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Dec. 14 executive order.
This means significant limitations to campus dining options for the foreseeable future.
“At this time the regulations require that all food locations on campus are take-out only,” a representative for Dining Services told the Torch in an email. “As was the case last semester dining services will continue to modify their locations given the continued need for social distancing and guidance in line with current NYS and NYC regulations.”
At the beginning of the fall semester tents for outdoor dining were placed in the Residence Village, however these tents have since been removed. According to the Dining Services representative, “The large tents were removed from the Residence Village as they could no longer provide a comfortable dining area during the colder months as it is difficult to provide heat to such a large area.”
The smaller tent located outside of the law school remains in place, allowing students to eat outdoors (weather-permitting) as long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines. Dining Services did not specify what plans they have in place in the event of inclement weather conditions.
Montgoris Dining Hall, the Montgoris Market and “select locations” in Marillac, including Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and the Law School Café, are scheduled to open with take-out only options. All other dining locations on the Queens Campus remain closed.
Last fall, Montgoris opened on Oct. 2 at 25% capacity, with 65 persons permitted on the first floor and 62 persons on the second floor, and remained open until winter break.
As far as COVID-19 testing requirements for servers at all dining locations on campus, the Dining Services representative told the Torch that “Chartwells manages the readiness of their workforce eligibility.”
“All Dining Services Associates are required to complete a wellness check and COVID screening prior to the start of their shifts,” they continued.
