Students routinely disappointed by a lack of late night dining options on campus may be interested in a petition currently gaining support.

For a little more than a week, Bowling Green sophomore Nick Conrad, a McCormack Hall resident assistant, has been walking around campus, gathering signatures for a petition requesting a 24-hour dining option on campus.

“I just saw the need for it,” Conrad said. “I study late at night and I’m usually up past twelve.”

He also said he knows of many other students with similar studying schedules who would be interested in a 24-hour restaurant on campus.

Conrad said in roughly a week, he has gathered more than 700 signatures and is still working on getting more.

“I’m planning on getting signatures from three weeks to a month,” he said. “I’m shooting for a goal of 5,000.”

Conrad said he has met with representatives of the Student Government Association who are interested in helping him with his goal.

“SGA is also in the process of writing something to back it,” he said.

Bowling Green junior Christopher Costa, an SGA senator, said he met Conrad by chance and has since written a resolution in support of a 24-hour on-campus dining option.

“I was just outside of Cherry Hall between classes, and Nick had his petition and he was passing it around to some people, and I kind of overheard what it was about, and we sat down and talked about it for a few minutes,” Costa said.

He said his resolution will be debated and voted on next Tuesday at the SGA meeting. If SGA approves the resolution, they will present it to Gary Meszaros, assistant vice president for Auxiliary Services, for consideration.

Meszaros said he is open to the idea of a 24-hour restaurant on campus but added there “would be an extra cost associated with it.”

He said the prices at the 24-hour restaurant would have to be increased to “cover the cost of longer services” and the school would have to hire more people to staff it.

Steve Hoyng, resident district manager for Aramark, said he is interested in the idea, but also pointed out some of the difficulties such a restaurant would have.

He said staffing a 24-hour restaurant and providing consistent service would both be difficult.

“If a student is coming in later in the evening,” Hoyng said, “he would expect the same service, the same quality of menu items that were served earlier, and that’s very difficult to do when the customer count isn’t as busy as it would be at lunch and dinner.”

Despite these difficulties, Hoyng said he would consider the proposal.

“We’re always open to new ideas, and we’re always open to improving the program,” he said.