Student Center to open in early December

After months of construction and design, the Lory Student Center

Food Court will open the first week of November with improvements

in seating and efficiency.

“The entire dining area should open for the public when we open

the four food venues in November,” said Robert Peters, director of

business at the student center, in an e-mail interview.

Though originally set to open at the end of September, Peters

said the renovations are taking a little longer than expected.

“Anytime you have a big project like this, deadlines are a

moving target,” Peters said. “You run into a surprise here, or a

surprise there and you are out a week.”

Carl’s Jr., That’s a Wrap, Wishbones and The Bagel Place, will

be the first four out of the six restaurants in the food court to

open, Peters said.

Taco John’s will open in December and Panda Express will come at

the beginning of the spring semester in January.

“I think that’d be good,” said Jeff Johnson, a sophomore

business major. “It’s always nice to have some more variety.”

Defne Beyce, a second bachelor’s student studying wildlife

biology, said the food court should offer more healthy options. She

also said the renovations delay has decreased students’

choices.

“The only problem is that there’s now so few vendors that

there’s not a lot of choices and there’s lines and there’s not a

lot of seating,” Beyce said.

Though Peters said he knew the construction was creating long

lines for lunch, he said the construction crew is trying to finish

as soon as they can.

“If we can get other venues open sooner, of course we will open

them,” Peters said. “However, I don’t want to increase expectations

that we will be open any sooner than that first week of

November.”

Though the food court will not be open for another month, Kris

Folsom, coordinator of the student center, said the renovations are

worth the wait.

“(The food court) is going to have a look and feel that is very

pleasing,” she said.

The new food court will have a new floor with jewel tones and

warm colors that will match the new seats.

Folsom said there will also be a “gorgeous” stonewall.

“It will fit in really nicely with other areas on campus,” she

said.

Besides the look and feel of the new food court, Folsom said the

new design will be much more efficient.

Each restaurant will be self-contained and have it own cash

register, she said. “We’ve really been able to address the issues

that we wanted,” Folsom said.

With the renovations still underway, other businesses in the

Student Center have had to adjust to the construction.

“We’ve had really long lines,” said Gwynyvere Trevethick, an

employee at Subway in the student center Commons.

Trevethick credits the long lines at Subway to the

renovations.

“(The students) either eat here or nowhere at all,” Trevethick

said.

When the construction ends, Trevethick said she does not think

that Subway will lose a lot of business because she thinks many

students are avoiding the student center now due to the

renovations.

“I’m sure more people will be eating here,” Trevethick said.

Trevethick, a junior biology student, said the renovations have

brought some inconveniences such as fire alarms going off.

“It’s annoying,” Trevethick said.