As the seniors absorbed the sights and silence of a mostly empty campus, Street Hawk cook Ben Cremer worked inside the UI’s food truck. The savory aroma of burgers, pulled pork sandwiches, and other items wafted between residence halls and buildings from its spot parked on the walkway. 

By 1 p.m., Cremer said the truck had only served just over a handful of customers. It’d typically serve between 200 and 300 people on a given day. Its Monday through Friday operational hours are now 11 a.m.- 2 p.m., when the cooks would normally take orders until 3 p.m.

Rock music blared over the food truck’s speakers, as usual, but to a nonexistent crowd. Cremer said it’s eerie to see so few people out and about on a normally bustling campus, but he considered himself lucky to still have a job at this point.

“It makes the days drag a little bit,” he said of the campus atmosphere. “… Summers aren’t even like this.”