“Once we opened Akers — brand new, bigger operation, air conditioned — of the over a thousand residents in Hubbard, we feed less than 200 each meal in Hubbard, they all go to Akers,” Matt McKune, associate director of residential dining, said.

The dining hall in Hubbard was one of three in East Neighborhood. Now only Akers Hall and Holmes Hall will be open on a regular basis, in addition to specialized dining at Owen Hall.

However, Hubbard Dining Hall will be open several days during the week for events and study hours. McKune said food will sometimes be served during study periods.

“While they’re studying up there we’ll have pop machines, I told them the first night I want cookies, somewhere within the first month, I want root beer floats one night,” McKune said. “We want students to come up there, engage, study, do the things on (event nights), but we also know they go where food is.”

However, some students didn’t see the positive aspects MSU Culinary Services had in mind.

Though he did not know why the dining hall was switching to special events only, finance freshman and Hubbard Hall resident Gregory King suspected the dining hall was closing because of bad promotion.

“It never really was well-promoted as a dining hall, I think that’s kind of why it got a bad rep, people were always like ‘you should go to Akers, you shouldn’t go to Hubbard,’” King said.

Many students are upset that they will be losing some of their favorite dining options.

Political science freshman Zach Bosco, who also lives in Hubbard Hall, said the loss of Hubbard Dining Hall means he and other students will lose a lot of customized food options.

“The one thing was the pasta, the create-your-own pasta," Bosco said. "I also think there’s a create-your-own pizza.”

Similarly, King said he liked the different options the dining hall offered.

“Across campus, there’s not really anything in comparison, at least what I’ve seen,” he said.

Thankfully for King, McKune said Hubbard Hall’s unique offerings will live on in East Neighborhood.

“They’ll still have the personal pizzas, but it might not be every day — it might be Fridays at lunch or something,” McKune said. “We’ll have it, it just won’t be every day. It could be on the weekends, too.”

Additionally, McKune said “Sticks and Noodles” at Akers Hall might begin to occasionally offer build-your-own pasta, like what was available at Hubbard Dining Hall.

Bosco also said the closing of the dining hall will become an inconvenience in the winter.

“Right now, it’s still mild weather, but as soon as it gets cold, even though it’s so close from Hubbard to Akers, I’m not going to want to walk all the way to Akers,” he said.

King also said the cold weather might deter him from going to Akers Hall. 

“Akers is convenient now, but when it gets colder I’m probably not going to want to make more trips out than I have to," he said.

A different aspect of the inconvenience for students is having to go out of their way during times when they might be running late.

“For breakfast, (Hubbard) is a good thing, because for breakfast I eat cereal so I might skip breakfast at times," business freshman Aditya Sandeep Tiwari said. I might be lazy or be late in the morning to go to Akers, because over there, there’s so many people already and you have to wait in lines.”

McKune assured that everything being done to change Hubbard is being done to benefit the students.

Students should be sure to make their way to Hubbard Dining Hall before Oct. 7 if they want to get their final Hubbard meal in.