For most Skidmore students, it has become a habit to wait in Burgess Cafe’s long line for their daily caffeine intake. But starting this semester, despite its popularity, Burgess Café has changed its daily hours. The Café will be closing at 9 p.m., four hours earlier than last year’s operation hours.
According to Mark Miller, the Director of Dining Services, the decision to close Burgess Café early was made because “[they] were looking for ways to save money for the college.” Closing the cafe at 9 p.m. was a strategic and reasonable cost reduction decision, he said.
Miller mentioned that last year’s hours of operation were long, with the average coffee sale from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. being only “one or two customers per labor hours.” By taking into consideration the fixed costs — such as employee wages — keeping Burgess open after 9 p.m. was no longer profitable. He further explained that an institution cannot function without profit.
As the only coffeeshop at Skidmore, Burgess offers a variety of beverages and a tasteful selection of pastries and snacks. A frequent Burgess customer, junior Lauren Davis ‘21, raised her concerns regarding the short hours.
“It’s not fair that students have to adjust to such a drastic change,” she says. Last semester, Davis went to Burgess frequently past 9 p.m. to get snacks and a variety of beverages to keep her energized through her studies.
In addition to losing her healthy food and beverage supply, she said that the dark corner of Case Student Center, which used to be brightened by Burgess Café’s lights, has changed the atmosphere of Case. Davis hopes that Burgess could at least stay open until 11 p.m., as the four-hour difference is a drastic change for some students already.
The early closing of Burgess does not only affect students as consumers, but student workers who used to work past the Café’s current closing. On the surface, the early closing of Burgess Café could mean that student workers now can dedicate more time to their academics, a positive effect that Director of Dining Services Miller intended.
However, it is not the case for every worker. Sophomore Sarah Choi ‘22, a student worker who used to work the last shift at Burgess last semester, shared a drawback of the new closing hour.
“I am not pro-closing early,” she says. “When I want to make up a shift, there is no time for me to make it up, because it closes so early. I have class in the morning until the afternoon, so if I want to miss a shift, I can’t make it up.”
Along with her extensive class schedule, Choi is an active member of a variety of clubs on campus. She said that early closing hours are, in fact, interfering with her participation in school activities, leaving her with little flexibility at work.
For alternatives to late-night Burgess beverages, Miller suggests that students use the library coffee machine and Atrium Café located in the Murray Atkins Dining Hall. The library coffee machine offers varieties of hot beverages and has been upgraded to simultaneously grind coffee beans as consumers purchase their coffee.
Atrium, open until 11 p.m., also serves coffee from the locally-owned brewery, Capital City Roasters, in addition to other soft drinks and snacks. The library’s Café is open until 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, and Sunday night.