Coffee Shop Uprooted From Lounge to New Location

For many students, the coffee shop was their only solace from the hustle and bustle of daily college life. It served its purpose in the student lounge as a place to get coffee or a smoothie while avoiding the busy atmosphere of Crooker. 

However, the start of this school year has seen the removal of our beloved coffee shop from the student lounge.  It is now incorporated into the new Subway, along with the smoothie option. 

Although this new arrangement could have potential, it begs the question, why try to fix something that was never broken? Assistant Vice President of Campus Life Matt Prasifka provides some insight on how this decision was made. 

“I think with Quizno’s becoming Subway, some of the pieces and the space that they have in there, there is room to provide the coffee service in there as well as the smoothie service,” Prasifka said. “So just the fact that the two locations are so close and that service is able to be offered here, it just was more, in some ways, economical to try that out at Subway.”               

While this is a reasonable concept and deserves a chance, it doesn’t make the change any less of a shock to students. Many students seek refuge in the student lounge as a quiet space to relax or study between classes, and the coffee shop was a great comfort outside of Crooker. Barnes, a junior and avid coffee drinker, was appalled by the sudden change of location.

“I think that the coffee shop being removed is a huge loss for the campus,” Barnes said. “They say that we’re going to have coffee in Crooker, but it totally defeats the purpose of a coffee shop. The coffee shop is meant, historically speaking, for people to come and gather to discuss the news and ideas and stuff, but you can’t really do that in Crooker because so many people come and go.”               

A main concern among students is there seemed to have been no consideration for our opinions on the matter. Most of us left for the summer, and when we returned, there was no coffee shop. One would think that such a big change to a popular campus amenity would have been put to vote or at least run through a Residence Life Council meeting to gauge the students’ perspective before taking such radical action. 

Unfortunately, since the decision was made during the summer, the majority of full time students were not available for their voices to be heard. Barnes was one of these unheard students, and she hopes to change that.               

“I think it’s bad because we didn’t get a say in it, and it’s our money,” Barnes said. “I think that we should have our coffee shop back, and we should change the setting for it to be more conducive to studying, and have it be more lounge-like, not like now where it’s kind of sterile. I want to start a petition that everyone can sign so that we can get our coffee shop back and also that we get it back improved, because currently it has a lot that it could improve upon.”               

While this may seem like the end of an era for coffee shop frequenters, there still may be hope for its return. Depending upon the performance of the new coffee/smoothie/Subway set up, Food Services may be open to once again separating the coffee shop from Crooker, according to Prasifka.

“We need to see what the traffic is like down here, and what kind of traffic Subway creates on its own,” Prafiska said. “I’m not going to say that it’s going to go back, I’m not going to say that it’s not, but it’s going to be something that we kind of evaluate. Hopefully people will give it a chance, because like I said, many of the same things that were offered in the lounge, you’ll be able to get that at Subway.”