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During spring break, my friends went down on Sunday to the Village P.O.D. for dinner. The schedule clearly stated that the hours that day would be 4 p.m. until midnight. But 5 p.m. came and went and the doors were locked and the lights off.

Brandeis brags about its international student body. On my floor alone there are students from Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland. Unless those students’ families are able to afford international flights multiple times a semester, I can’t imagine they’re going to be returning home every break. Coming from Minnesota alone is a 2.5-hour plane ride and costs around $500, including the use of my mother’s frequent-flyer miles. I know for a fact that there are hundreds of students in the same situation, unable or unwilling to pay thousands of dollars to go home for Brandeis’ strange break schedule throughout the year. This results in a large amount of students present on campus during semester breaks. Why doesn’t our dining system reflect our campus population?

I’m not only upset about the Village P.O.D. hours during semester breaks. The hours for the main dining halls are just as strange. Sherman opens later and closes earlier. Einsteins is either closed permanently or open for a four-hour period on the weekend. The C-Store is the only reliable place for food on breaks, but it is not convenient for those residing in lower campus and how many times can I eat Chobani yogurt, frozen dinners and fruit cups in one week? It is not too much to ask for an alternative, reliable food source during our breaks.

Outside of the break schedule, the regular weekday hours of the V-Store are noon until midnight. There are a large number of midyears, sophomores and juniors living in the Village as well as the upperclassmen in Ziv that would love to grab breakfast or coffee near their dorms. For people exercising at the Village gym in the morning, many of which enjoy taking a break from their studying to fit in a run, the V-Store is not an option for a post-workout snack.

The selection at the V-Store is also unimpressive. They tend not to restock frequently and the amount of food offered in relation to the number of people that live near the store is pitifully inaccurate. It would also make sense for the selection to be larger if the V-Store were open for more hours each day. All in all, it would create more revenue for the school and more avenues for the students to use up points and meals.