Nicholls’ night owls can now nest for a longer period of time at the Student Union. Beginning Aug. 16, a new set of hours was implemented for the hangout.Mondays through Thursdays, the Student Union will stay open until 10 p.m., an hour later than before. Saturdays it will be open from 1 to 6 p.m., as opposed to being closed every Saturday in the past. Sundays the Student Union will open at 4 p.m., an hour earlier than usual.

As of now all of the food vendors close at 9 p.m. on weekends except Godfather’s, which closes at 10 p.m. On weekends, the food vendors are not open.

David Wait, manager of Sodexho, said plans to keep the other food vendors open later are in the works.

In other Student Union news, the popularity of Le Bijou Theater has been on the rise. On Aug. 19, 127 students filled the theater for the Nicholls debut of “Johnson Family Vacation.” The theater will soon begin playing newly released DVDs on Tuesdays, the weekly release date. Also, Le Bijou will be showing matinees more often. The matinees will usually take place Fridays before football games and will focus on a particular actor or theme.

The hours are not the only changes occurring at the hangout. Furniture, walls and floors will gradually be replaced. The idea is to give the Student Union a more comfortable feel, Evans said.

There will also be more late night and weekend activities planned. Because Nicholls is an active member of the Association of College Unions International (ACUI), it has support with developing services for students. One of the new activities will be a Poetry Slam. Any student on campus is invited to bring his or her original poetry to read to a panel of student judges. The judges will give the poet a score from 1 to 10 based on content and performance.

“(The poetry) is heartfelt, sometimes brash, but all from the heart,” Gregory Evans, director of the Student Union, said.

The Student Union will introduce College Bowl to Nicholls. The game is a combination between “Family Feud” and “Jeopardy.” The team will form and compete on campus. The winners will move on to the ACUI regional competition, and the regional champion will move on to the national competition.

“We are trying to give students as much entertainment as possible,” Evans said. “We are moving Nicholls’ Bollinger Memorial Student Union to a ‘center’ of campus life and the heart of student programming and activity.