Bartlett Dining Commons will be closed for the spring quarter and for most of the summer. Beginning spring quarter, Baker Dining Commons access will also be restricted to students and staff living in Campus North or Max Palevsky Residential Commons who have purchased a UChicago Dining meal plan. Full service is expected to return by fall 2023.

The closure and associated changes were announced in a December 1 email to residents of Max Palevsky Residential Commons and Snell-Hitchcock Hall by Executive Director of UChicago Dining Christopher Toote. He announced the future restrictions on Baker in a separate email on December 2 to all on-campus housing residents with a UChicago Dining plan.

According to the emails, the closure is necessary for the next phase of external improvements on Bartlett, built from 1901 to 1904. Work began on the first phase of these improvements this summer. Exterior scaffolding and fencing remain around the building and at its entrances, although major work has paused for the autumn and winter quarters, per the emails.

During spring quarter, residents of both Max Palevsky and Snell-Hitchcock will receive five additional meal exchanges usable during lunch periods from Mondays through Fridays each week, an additional 100 Maroon Dollars, and 10 additional “to-go” meals from dining halls. Additionally, all dining halls will serve lunch from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., extended from the standard window ending at 2:30 p.m.

For those eligible to dine at Baker in the spring and summer quarters, credit cards and Maroon Dollars will no longer be accepted as they normally are at campus dining halls. Further, Baker will no longer be available for outside groups nor for private dining events.

Operations at Cathey Dining Commons and Woodlawn Dining Commons, located next to Renée Granville-Grossman Residential Commons and Woodlawn Residential Commons respectively, will remain unchanged. Retail food vendors in Hutchinson Commons will also remain open.

For spring quarter, the eight tables corresponding to Max Palevsky’s residential houses will be in Baker Dining Commons. House tables for Snell House and Hitchcock House will be in Cathey Dining Commons.

“Additional resources and programming will be provided to ensure that we continue to offer a dining program that promotes service, quality, safety, and community dining while the essential improvements are made in Bartlett Hall,” Toote wrote in both emails.

Toote encouraged students to direct questions to dining@uchicago.edu. In his email to Max Palevsky and Snell-Hitchcock residents, he also promised the communication of “additional operational changes to ease access to dining services” closer to the start of spring quarter.