Who doesn’t like convenience? Kudos to the administration of Lynn University for doing right by the student body.

Allie Grasgreen of Inside Higher Ed reports.

More Dining, Less Dozing (in Class)

Students at Lynn University, a small private college in Florida, were probably happy enough that they can now get food on campus at any hour, since administrators decided to keep the sole cafeteria open 24/7.

As an unexpected bonus, they now can avoid the dreaded 8 a.m. class, too.

Lynn made the adjustment in dining hours for a pretty simple and obvious reason: administrators worried that students weren’t eating when they needed to. Athletes, working students and international students, many of whom tend to eat later, would regularly miss meals when the kitchen was only open for a few three-hour periods throughout the day.

Sure enough, with all-day access, students started coming in to eat later, sometimes using the cafeteria to study or socialize for hours at a time. But officials hadn’t exactly planned on what happened next: Instead of scheduling classes around when students can and can’t eat, they thought, why not get flexible?

So a two-hour 5 p.m. class that would have been unthinkable before is suddenly an option. And a popular one, at that. As the college experiments with course offerings throughout the day, it has quickly become clear that students much prefer that evening option to the early morning one.

And what of the faculty members who might feel the opposite?

“It’s our role to meet students where they are and find a time that works best for them educationally,” Vice President for Academic Affairs Gregg Cox said, noting that students are much more engaged, not to mention awake, in the evening. “If that’s what works best for our students, then that’s what we’re going to do.”

So in other words, professors, deal with it.