This is a developing story and may be updated as information becomes available.
Following a two-year interruption and a brief appearance last spring, cross-campus dining is back on the menu for the upcoming fall semester at the 5Cs.
In a Wednesday afternoon message to the community, Pomona College Dean of Students Avis Hinkson confirmed that cross-campus dining will be back on the table when students return to Claremont this fall.
Pomona’s communication representative Patricia Vest said cross-campus dining will open at Frary Dining Hall on Aug. 27 and Frank Dining Hall the following day.
Hinkson added that the continuation of shared access to dining halls will depend on the status of COVID-19 cases across the consortium, along with guidelines from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Masks will be required inside the dining halls and hand-washing stations will be available, according to Hinkson.
Unlike last year, Pomona’s Cafe 47 and Coop Fountain will be open for all 5C students. Hinkson added that language tables at Pomona’s Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations, where 5C students converse in one of fourteen foreign languages over lunch, will open later in the semester but did not specify when.
Food trucks will continue to be offered at Pomona, but will be restricted for special events and students on Pomona’s unlimited meal plan.
Scripps College administrative assistant Beth Garvin also confirmed the updated dining policies to TSL via email. Garvin added that Malott Dining Commons will open to non-Scripps students on Aug. 28, but has not yet confirmed whether other 5C students will have access to the Motley coffeehouse when it opens.
Access to dining halls outside students’ respective colleges had been on pause since the pandemic forced students home in March 2020. As the colleges navigated a return to in-person learning last academic year, cross-campus dining opened in February before a post-spring break surge in cases forced the colleges to suspend it again in mid-April.
Updated 5:42 p.m. PT.
Jenna McMurtry PO ’24 currently serves as a news editor for TSL.