Boston College students were greeted with multiple BC Dining changes as they returned for the 2022–23 academic year. One controversial adjustment, however, was the decision to relocate sushi from Lyons to CoRo Cafe.
“I know for me and for others, especially since the dining bucks are so limited … we want to use the dining bucks for like coffee and stuff, we don’t want to use it for other things, especially if they’re going to be overpricing sushi,” said Kenneth Bui, CSON ’25.
With the move to CoRo Cafe, students can now only purchase sushi through Residential Dining Bucks instead of their regular dining dollars—students on BC’s dining meal plan are only given $175 Residential Dining Bucks each semester in comparison to the $2,825 regular dining dollars.
On Sept. 1, Bui used the username “Ratt Sushi” to start a petition on Change.org titled “Move sushi back to the Ratt.” The petition currently has 169 signatures.
Bui said he largely started the petition as a joke in response to the inconvenience of the sushi’s new location—Bui currently lives on Lower Campus. When Bui also realized that sushi is now only purchasable using Residential Dining Dollars, he said he became even more affected by the issue.
“I didn’t know [the sushi] would go from meal plan to dining bucks, so that was like even more of an inconvenience because I’m a little stingy when it comes to my meal plan money,” Bui said.
BC Dining implements new changes to its program every year, according to Director of BC Dining Beth Emery.
“We have received some feedback that students prefer sushi at Lyons,” Emery said in an email to The Heights.
Emery did not specify how or if BC Dining will react to this feedback.
Suiyenah Chen—who signed Bui’s petition—said that she used to get sushi everyday from the Rat, but now, since it has been moved up to CoRo Cafe, she has not gotten it once.
“I think it’s really inconvenient how they moved the sushi over to Mac because the Rat was in the middle of all the classes, so it was very convenient to just leave your class, go to Rat, and get food,” Chen, LSEHD ’25, said.
Beyond the controversial change to BC’s sushi, however, BC Dining also improved its menu variety and expanded hours and days for late night at Lyons and BC After Dark. Additionally, dinner at Hillside, combo meals/daily deals, and the FRESH stand at the farmer’s market have returned.
“We hope that students appreciate the increased variety with our five-week menu cycle,” Emery said.
Emery also added that there has been strong attendance at Lyons late night since the beginning of the school year.
This year, as a new initiative in collaboration with UGBC and the Center for Student Wellness, BC Dining also provided all freshmen with Green2Go reusable to-go containers.
“The Green2Go containers were very well received and we are seeing an increased use of them across campus,” Emery said.
Looking forward, Emery said that BC Dining will continue to roll out changes.
“We will be opening dinner at Hillside BC After Dark Monday-Wednesday when we are fully staffed,” Emery said.
