After a temporary removal of access at the beginning of the Fall 2023 semester, Blakemore House residents once again are able to dine in the Hendrix Room — the student-athlete dining hall — for dinner Sunday-Thursday, as they could last year. 

“After receiving feedback from students and parents, [Dining] decided to revert to the original policy,” said a university representative in an Aug. 28 email to The Hustler.

An initial Aug. 22 email from Campus Dining to Blakemore residents cited space restrictions as the reason for the policy change.

“Due to limited capacity, non-Blakemore residents other than student-athletes will not be admitted,” the email reads. 

The Hendrix Room has traditionally served as the dining hall for student-athletes, but Blakemore residents gained access to Hendrix for dinner last year after Blakemore ceased to be quarantine housing. Sophomore and Blakemore resident Imaad Muwahid was confused when he heard access was revoked during his first floor meeting of the year. Muwahid is a former staff writer for The Hustler.

“I assumed we would still have access to dinner since it was provided last year, too,” Muwahid said. “I’m grateful that we get access to eat dinner at Hendrix, but it would be great if we could get breakfast and lunch there as well, especially since the other dining halls are much further away from Blakemore.” 

Students did not realize that access had been revoked until after moving in. According to sophomore and Blakemore Residential Advisor Swarat Kulkarni, both students and staff were kept in the dark.

“It was an unfortunate circumstance for both transfer students and staff. We were seldom kept in the loop, making it difficult to effectively communicate with residents and families,” Kulkarni said.

Muwahid explained that Blakemore RAs played a key role in reinstating the former policy, though Kulkarni emphasized that it was a collective endeavor.

“While RA staff advocated to get dining access, it was more so a cohesive effort by all of Blakemore, with parents, students and faculty sending emails on each other’s behalf to reinstate existing policies,” Kulkarni said.