Tim Tai

Until Tuesday, students can vote on dishes for two food stations in Commons: Lotus and Pasta e Basta. The winning options will appear in the next menu cycle.

For Lotus, students can choose between three bowl options — Korean fried chicken or tofu; chicken tikka masala or dal makhani; and, thirdly, sauteed jade chicken or tofu with snow peas and green beans in a white sauce. At Pasta e Basta, students can select one of three new house-made pasta sauces — wild mushroom cream, heirloom tomato or delicata squash.

“The dishes which receive the most votes will be offered at those stations after Fall break,” Michael van Emmenes, a top Yale Hospitality administrator, wrote in an email to the News.

The announcement came on Tuesday in an email sent by the Yale College Council dining policy team. The email also stated that students will be able to add cheese to their dishes at the Pasta e Basta station.

The new system, which allows students to shape the rotating menu, follows a period of significant change for Commons dining. Beginning this semester, students on meal plans can no longer use swipes for lunch at Commons or the grab-and-go Bow Wow, instead paying with dining points. Each Commons meal now costs 11 points — equivalent to roughly $11.

Currently, Lotus serves crispy black bean tofu or crispy black bean pork and a variety of dumpling options. Pasta e Basta serves ragù alla pugliese and fresh asparagus pasta.

Van Emmenes wrote that the new menu options were created by staff at Commons.

“The culinary team at The Commons created several Fall menu items for students to vote on at the LOTUS and Pasta e Basta stations based on seasonality, supply chain availability, food trends, and historically popular dishes,” Van Emmenes wrote, citing the Korean fried chicken bowl as one popular example.

Alongside the new voting initiative, the YCC dining policy team announced another change: Beginning after Oct. 15, students will be able to add cheese to their pasta bowls at Pasta e Basta. That change came after advocacy from Branford Senator Santiago Giraldo ’28.

“Everytime I went to the pasta station at Commons I would always get a plate without cheese and it would irritate the hell out of me,” Giraldo wrote in a statement to the News. “I’m a big cheese with pasta fan. So not having cheese with my meals was incredibly annoying and I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.”

Santiago said that YCC dining policy director Thy Luong ’28 and deputy dining director Brendan Kaminski ’28 met with a representative from Yale Hospitality to bring his idea into reality.

Luong wrote in an email to the News that she and Kaminski met with Yale Hospitality on Sept. 23.

Luong said the meeting consisted of introductions between YCC officials and Yale Hospitality and discussion of other new initiatives, including the potential for “future pop-up ideas.”

“I’m really happy that Thy and Brendan have kept up and built upon the amazing relationship we began with Ms. Westwater and Ms. Hepburn-James at the beginning of the summer,” YCC President Andrew Boanoh ’27 wrote to the News, referring to Jodi Smith Westwater, Yale’s assistant vice president for hospitality, and Stacey Hepburn-James, Yale Hospitality’s senior director of residential operations.

Boanoh said he cast his vote for the Korean fried chicken or tofu and wild mushroom cream options and “would encourage all students to do the same.”

According to Luong, the dining policy team plans to meet with Yale Hospitality administrators once every three weeks, and is in communication with Yale Hospitality about bringing cookies back to Commons.

“We’re looking forward to fully advocating for student demands and, most importantly, collaborating with Hospitality to implement feasible change,” Luong wrote.

Commons is located in the Schwarzman Center.