U. won't serve up brunch plan

Due to a less than favorable student response, Dining Services will not be serving Sunday brunch as planned, Dining Services Director Bill Canney said yesterday. Canney said that by the late December deadline, only 50 students had signed up for the weekend service, 125 less than Hospitality Services needed to break even financially. The decision means students will have no weekend dining options this semester. Canney had planned to replace Sunday dinner -- the only weekend meal offered last semester -- with the Sunday brunch this semester. Last semester, Dining Services catered to a request from Football Coach Al Bagnoli by offering Sunday dinner. The dinners were the first time that weekend meals were available at the University since 1980. The proposed brunch would have been offered at William White Training House, the smallest dining hall on campus, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Canney said last month that he hoped the meal would be appealing to students who wanted a nutritious weekend meal, but he acknowledged that the T-House's location -- adjacent to Franklin Field -- may have deterred students from signing up. He said Sunday brunch is the most popular meal on other college campuses. Darren Parslow, a T-House student employee, said he was not surprised that students were not attracted to the newest addition to Dining Services. The College and Wharton senior pointed out that students can eat brunch at Cavanaugh's Restaurant for more than $4 less per meal than under the Dining Services plan. Parslow said that the reason last semester's Sunday dinner was successful was because it coincided with athletic teams' practices. "It worked out well when the football team was here," he said. "[There] weren't many people besides the football team." Canney said yesterday that although the brunch idea was not successful, he "may try another alternative" next year but he did not specify what the alternative might be.

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