FFCo closed, RFoC open until July 28
With no email alert and an unnoticeable poster, Fresh Food Company dining hall on east campus closed on May 19 and doesn't plan to reopen until July 28.
"Normal summer operations are scheduled in RFoC," Director of Residential Dining for Campus Dining Brenda Marquardt said in an email. "To assist with operational maintenance in RFoC this summer, meals were served in FFCo the first two weeks after graduation."
CMU's policies on sending out mass emails hinders campus dining's ability to warn students of such instances of changing where food is served.
"The university has strict guidelines on when mass emails can go out to students. Therefore we do not have access to such a database to send an email to students about hours of operation," Marquardt said.
Celani Hall was designated originally to house the summer staff and summer school students. An abundance of student workers were hired to work on the dorms to get them ready for the upcoming academic school year, too many to house in Celani, forcing them to move to Kulhavi Hall to live for the rest of the summer.
"This year, our intention was to have everyone, both staff and summer students, stay in Celani; however, we ran into a problem where we ended up hiring more summer staff than we could house and stay in Celani," said Assistant Director of Events and Conference Services Chad Garland. "That's why we relocated over to Kulhavi."
Students were given the choice when signing up for living in the dorms to receive a meal plan or to buy Flex Dollars to spend at the dining halls. Real Food on Campus is the only dining hall open on CMU's campus.
"In the past, we have opened only one residential restaurant during the summer," Marquardt said in an email. "By scheduling open two locations, it has allowed for each location to schedule additional maintenance."
The last two years, a set of renovations to RFoC left no choice but to open up FFCo while students stayed in the Towers.
"Summer dining was provided in the Fresh Food Company the last two years because of the RFoC renovation schedule," Marquardt said in an email.
Garland helps with the planning of the summer housing in coordination with Residence Life, which he says has the final say on housing. He remembers when the dining and housing for summer students were the opposite of what it is now.
"When we first looked at this two years ago, I believe we had all summer school students and summer staff living in the Towers. They had to all walk over to Fresh Food for meals, so it was just the reverse," Garland said.
No complaints were received, therefore they continued housing summer staff and students in the Towers and serving those with meal plans or flex at FFCo. Those staying in Kulhavi this summer are unaware that there is an issue.
"One of the things that I know we all looked at was the actual number of people who get meal plans during the summer and that number is actually relatively low compared to the number of people who actually come to summer school," Garland said. "We've reached out to students and asked if there were any big concerns before we had them stay in the Towers and walk over to Fresh Food and we really didn't receive any negative feedback in that regard."
All the staff involved in the summer with dining and housing plan ahead of time for summer, determining the best places for dining and housing.
"Summer planning starts as early as January. Staff from Campus Dining, Residence Life and Camps and Conferences begin meeting weekly in May and work together to create the summer plan," Marquardt said in an email.
Besides RFoC, Trackside, Starbucks, P.O.D. Market, Java City, Goodies to Go and the Market are open right now. The Market is supposed to close on July 1. C3 Express, Northside Market, Einstein Bros Bagels, Down Under Food Court, Tidbits and the Robinson and Merrill residential restaurants are all closed for the summer.
