Harrison creates curiosity, long lines

By Jennifer Werner
THE STYLUS

Photos by Amanda Seef NEWS EDITOR Students go through the motions at the new Harrison Hall, on opening day Oct. 17

The day had come, Harrison dining hall has finally opened for business. So the question is, was it worth the wait?

A student in line opening day commented, “This is huge, ginormous! Everyone’s been anticipating it.”

It would seem that students are happy with the overall outcome of the dining hall. There is a difference between where students will go to eat now that everything is open to everyone. Some students say they will only eat at Harrison now that it is open, while others say that they will continue to go to Brockway, Trax and the Seymour College Union.

“Students are definitely checking out the new facility — we served over 1,000 customers during dinner on both Wednesday and Thursday, which equates to serving one customer about every 9 seconds,” Marketing Director Anna Hintz said.

“I will definitely eat at other dining halls,” sophomore Sam Hickson said, though others disagreed, saying that they would rather eat at Harrison all the time.

“It’s all about convenience,” senior Leah Pratt said. “It depends on what each dining hall is serving.”

This seems like the general consensus among students. If a student is heading back from class, they may stop at Brockway because it is closer at the time. Also, some may go to Brockway, Trax or the Union just to avoid the inevitable long line at Harrison. Long lines were expected once Harrison opened due to curiosity, but the line does move fairly quickly.

“We’re really excited about this,” Executive Director Diane Dimitroff said. “This is the style of line you see on lots of campuses.”

Once your card has been swiped, you do not necessarily need to stay in the line leading to the Mediterranean and International stations. The space was made more open and with multiple sections so people could wander from station to station and see what they would like.

If you do decide to wait in the line, be aware that if you are at the bottom of the stairs it will be about a five minute wait, and if you are at the doors, it will be about a 10 minute wait.

“Our biggest challenges occurred this weekend. During brunch on Saturday, the tray return carousel malfunctioned and was down for about an hour and a half,” Hintz said.  “Managers quickly set up a temporary tray return station and helped customers with their trays as they were exiting.

 “On Sunday during brunch a heat sensor at the omelet station was activated causing the fire alarm to go off around 11:30 am. Harrison managers were able to get customers back into the building about 10 minutes later.”

The food selection seems to be wide, and different types are being introduced. The different sections that can be seen are international, Mediterranean, and American as the main areas of focus. Returning stations are the grill, salad bar, beverages, desserts, and cereal. Everything has it’s own new twist of course, but the general ideas are the same. Beverages have been upgraded to some new juice dispensers, along with new dispensers for the cereals, and grill has a new look to itself. To add on to the look, there are smaller lamps hanging from the ceiling over each section to add some color and extra light onto everything. To any returning students, you will also notice that the televisions have been upgraded to new plasma screens to enhance your viewing pleasure. Also, cooking has been brought out front for students to enjoy watching, and smaller wells have been incorporated so that students can enjoy fresher food.

BASC is currently putting together a capitol plan for the next five years for what to do to any on campus food station. Little renovations are possibly in store for the little kiosks such as Hartwell café, Aerie Café, or Jitterbugs to change some designs or fix anything. No major plans are in motion for Brockway, Union, or Trax at the current moment but could potentially be added in to the grand scheme of things later on.

“I hope students will be patient,” dining services director Gary Stevens said. “Students should fill out comment cards, let us know how we’re doing, approach a manager if you don’t see something.”
-Additional Reporting by Amanda Seef