Late Night Pizza to return, housing director says – The Daily Eastern News

Late Night Pizza in South Quad is closing. The silver lining? It won’t be gone forever.

“Due to staffing shortages at the beginning of the school year, we had six openings among cooks and kitchen staff,” said Christopher Coffey, who manages the dining hall on Eastern’s campus.

Three of last year’s 23 cooks — about 13% — left Eastern, and three of the 10% to 30% of kitchen workers also left. A kitchen worker is someone who moves food boxes and restocks supplies.

With so much staff turnover, the dining department had to scramble this summer. They had to find services to cut, otherwise lunch and dinner wouldn’t be adequately staffed, said Mark Hudson, executive director of the university’s housing and dining services department.

Unfortunately for students, one of those cuts was the Late Night Pizza program.

Coffey said the search for replacement staff has been ongoing since the end of last school year. Because Eastern is a public university, hiring cooks or kitchen staff is a longer process.

“These are civil service positions, which means it’s a state recruitment process,” Hudson said. “We can’t just say, ‘Oh, you want to work here? Fine, come on in.’”

Hudson said new civil servants must apply, be assessed for skill level and undergo an interview before EIU makes an offer. They must then pass a background check and physical examination before they are officially hired.

The university is currently in the process of hiring additional staff. They are in the process of conducting background checks and physicals. Once those checks are complete, Late Night will reopen. According to Hudson, the background checks make it difficult to predict when Late Night Pizza will return.

“If your last name is Smith, it could take a long time,” Hudson said. “If your last name is Ish-ka-bibel, it should come back pretty quickly. The more unique the last name, the easier it is to do the check.”

The last background check on lodging and dining lasted a month. Previously, it took three days. Coffey said Eastern’s human resources department expects the Late Night Cook’s background check to return in a week.

“These are positions of trust,” Hudson said. “They have the keys, they control the inventory and they serve the food. We have to make sure they don’t cause problems and certainly do our due diligence.”

If all goes well, Late Night should reopen by September 3. If someone leaves or the food service department experiences a setback, the reopening could be pushed back. That said, if the new chef receives the results of a physical exam and background check beforehand, Late Night could open sooner.

“Bottom line: no, no, no, no, no. (Late Night) is not going away,” Hudson said. “It’s just a temporary hiatus until those positions are filled. Trust me, it’s the first thing that’s coming back.”

Aidan Cusack can be contacted at 581-2812 or in (email protected).