Starting in September, any Pitt student with a meal plan now has access to Carlow University\u2019s three dining locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chartwells Higher Education<\/a>, which manages Pitt Eats<\/a>, oversees both Pitt\u2019s and Carlow\u2019s dining halls. Since 2022, Carlow students have had access to Pitt\u2019s meal-swap locations. While some students see the new addition to the Pitt-Carlow partnership as a much-needed solution to overcrowding<\/a> on Pitt\u2019s campus, others question whether it\u2019s worth the extra walk or a fair trade for Carlow students, who already feel limited in their dining choices<\/a>.<\/p>\n Avery Hawranko, a sophomore biology major at Carlow, has had difficult experiences with Pitt meal swaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverytime I have tried to use them, they haven\u2019t worked,\u201d Hawranko said. \u201cIt\u2019s happened multiple times at Chick-fil-A, and I\u2019ve had to pay out of pocket. I would definitely be interested in using them if I didn\u2019t have these issues.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hawranko is \u201cfrustrated\u201d with Pitt students having access to Carlow\u2019s dining hall because she believes Carlow students \u201chave such limited options already.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPitt students have so many options, and I don\u2019t know why they would feel the need to come to Carlow when there are other places to eat,\u201d Hawranko said. \u201cWe have limited space here, so it is not ideal that we\u2019re opening it to students that don\u2019t go here.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Sterne, vice chancellor for business services at Pitt, said the collaboration with Carlow aims to give students \u201cmore dining options\u201d and \u201cflexibility.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPartnering with Carlow expands the variety of places students can eat and adds convenience \u2014 especially for those who live or spend time near Carlow\u2019s campus,\u201d Sterne said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Hampton Inn \u2014 where some first-year students are currently living<\/a> \u2014 is located on 3315 Hamlet St. \u2014 around a 13-minute walk from Carlow University on 3333 Fifth Ave.<\/p>\n Kate Piro, a first-year data science major at Pitt, understands why Pitt collaborated with Carlow,\u00a0 but is skeptical of whether or not the increased dining options will accommodate Pitt\u2019s largest class size yet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth the walk for me personally, since I live close to the Eatery and it works for me, but I can see how it\u2019s useful for Hampton kids,\u201d Piro said. \u201cI understand they were trying to help, but I don\u2019t know how much it worked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Sterne, Pitt is actively trying to accommodate its growing number of students by expanding dining options.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe larger dining strategy for the University always evolves based on changing student needs,\u201d Sterne said. \u201cFor example, Happy Boba<\/a> will soon open in the lobby of Towers, along with three new dining concepts at the new Recreation and Wellness Center \u2014 Recharge Cafe<\/a>, Edamame<\/a> and Squeezed<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Students such as Sadie Feingold, a first-year marketing major, went to Carlow\u2019s dining hall over fall break and had a positive experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little bit of a walk to get to, but I thought the staff were all really welcoming,\u201d Feingold said. \u201cI enjoyed scooping myself ice cream by the dessert area, [and] the chicken fingers tasted better than the Eatery or the Perch, in my opinion.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Feingold said she could find herself going back again at some point because it \u201cadd[s] more food options\u201d for Pitt students. However, because she lives in Bruce Hall, it\u2019s a trip that Feingold would have to budget her time for in advance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d consider going back on the weekends \u2014 it\u2019s a little too long of a walk for me during the week,\u201d Feingold said. \u201cI think [Pitt Eats is] doing a great job bringing more variety to dining for students and I look forward to seeing what they come up with next.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Rebecca Vitalie, a first-year studying elementary education, has not yet visited Carlow\u2019s dining hall but plans to use it in the future for more food options.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to go at some point in the future,\u201d Vitalie said. \u201cIt\u2019s not super conveniently located to me, so I\u2019m not sure how much I\u2019ll rely on it as an option, [but] it offers more options without [significantly] raising the price of the meal plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Vitalie said that based on her experiences at the Eatery, Pitt\u2019s dining hall is usually overcrowded.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Eatery can get very crowded, specifically in between classes around noon,\u201d Vitalie said. \u201cThis makes it very difficult to get a full meal during the day, and often, I leave still feeling hungry or dissatisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Vitalie is hopeful Carlow\u2019s dining hall will combat overcrowding, she still does not think it\u2019s fully reliable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it may marginally help with overcrowding, but I\u2019ve yet to hear of anyone actually using it or seeing the crowds go down since this new development,\u201d Vitalie said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting in September, any Pitt student with a meal plan now has access to Carlow University\u2019s three dining…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8025,8026,8027,8028,8029,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-9764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-carlow","tag-chartwells","tag-dining-hall","tag-eatery","tag-meal-plan","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}