It's been nearly a year since I first started school at Ithaca College. I have met a myriad of intriguing people, collected a number of indescribable experiences, and ate a lot of dining hall food. I've been mainly vegan since March 2015, and I was delighted to see the number of options available to vegan students like myself at Ithaca College.

However, I was disappointed to see that at Late Night, in which the Terrace Dining Hall is open from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m., my vegan options were virtually unavailable. As the semester comes to a close, I think it's worth discussing the problems associated with this specialty service.

Ithaca College has been recognized and applauded for its availability of, and accessibility to, a variety of plant-based options. In February 2018, Jeff Scott, the director of dining services, was given a certificate for providing outstanding plant-based options on campus. “Ithaca College Dining is committed to increasing plant-based menu consumption by 10 percent and decreasing animal protein consumption by 10 percent to support the health of our guests and reduce our environmental impact,” Scott said after receiving the award.

And Scott has followed on this promise: In each dining hall and for every meal, there is always a separate section for vegan and vegetarian food options. This, however, only accounts for the breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours the dining halls are in operation. Late Night is a specialty time by Dining Services in which the Terrace Dining Hall is open from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. Here vegan options are severely limited.

The college’s efforts to include vegan and vegetarian options at the dining halls are certainly not going unnoticed by vegan and vegetarian students — especially not by me, a vegan freshman grateful for the abundance of options on campus that fit my diet. But it is difficult to ignore the fact that vegan options at Late Night are meager, and on some nights, nonexistent.

The idea of Late Night is a valuable one, especially for student-athletes whose practices end past 8 p.m. Athletes aren’t able to truly benefit from this resource because the food options available do not cater toward their dietary needs or desires to eat healthier foods.

It’s difficult to find healthy offerings or vegan options when the themes at Late Night Monday-Thursday are breakfast for dinner, Taco Tuesday, pasta dishes, and comfort food, respectively. If Dining Services is being recognized for their efforts to provide plant-based and healthier options in its dining halls, Late Night should be included in its efforts.

As an athlete, I have naturally geared toward a desire to seek out healthier food options to both refuel after practices and generally keep myself strong. When my practices end past 8 p.m., I find it difficult to find a place on campus to eat. This forces me to either order food or finds some semblance of a meal from the snacks in my room.

I will often opt for the latter because I do not, like many other college students, have the money to order food every night my practices get out late. I have expressed my frustrations and talked to other athletes about this issue.

Though many are not vegan or vegetarian, they understand my struggle to find healthy options post-practice. Fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins (beans, legumes, nuts, or, for my teammates, lean meats) are difficult to find at this time of night because Late Night is our only option on campus.

Though student-athletes are not the only demographic affected by Late Night’s limited options, we have had the loudest voice when speaking out about the issue. Jeb Biggart, staff writer for The Ithacan, explores this in an article examining the lack of vegan and healthy options at Late Night.

Biggart interviews junior rugby player Mark Hassett, among several other student athletes, who speak to this struggle. “During regular dining hall hours, it is helpful when there are hot vegan options provided,” Hassett said. “The options disappear [at Late Night,] and vegans like myself are left to try and create our meals with the sides, such as bread and fruit.” Biggart also interviews Megan Yawman, freshman guard for the Ithaca College women’s basketball team.

She isn’t vegan, but she too struggles to find healthy options at Late Night after her late practices. She and her teammates find it “frustrating because we then have to go spend money on limited options in SubConnect or whatever we may or may not have in our room.” Dining Services should serve vegan or vegetarian and healthy options at Late Night as they do during regulation hours of the dining hall.

There are a few solutions to the limited food options at Late Night. One possibility would be to keep the salad bar and soups station open during the hours of 8 p.m. and midnight. Student athletes would have access to separate options healthier than the spotlighted dishes.

This food will, therefore, benefit them for future practices and competitions. A second, food-related approach to this issue would be to create a separate vegan/vegetarian option like the dining halls usually have during normal operation hours. This too would provide the aforementioned benefits. It would also provide more variety; not all vegans or student athletes are necessarily looking for solely healthy options.

There are nights when they might just want the vegan form of breakfast for dinner, the Taco Tuesday, the pasta dishes, or the comfort food.

It’s possible that this second option would prove more costly for Dining Services, and it’s likely that they will not see this second option in a positive light because of this. The first option, given that the soups and salad items are already prepared for the breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours, is more realistic.

But it’s also possible this solution would have an additional cost. I don’t claim to understand the inner working of Terrace Dining Hall, but I would guess that the soup and salad bars are stocked to last a full day — Late Night is potentially not included in this full day.

Both solutions would require some reworking and negotiate with Dining Services in order to render a positive outcome from this issue. However, it seems that Dining Services is actively looking to provide the students with healthier and more plant-based options. I have hopes that the staff will be open to finding a solution in which both the students and Dining Services are satisfied.