As we all know, college students love food and living at a four-year residency college like Denison, we need to have access to dining halls. Currently Denison hosts three dining halls: Slivy’s and Curtis on West Quad, Huffman on East Quad, and Slayter on Academic Quad.
These three dining halls are distributed throughout campus in sufficient locations at the ends and middle of campus life. However, North Quad and South Quad are lacking dining hall options.
North Quad does host a concession stand in the Mitchell Center called D-Fuse for students to pick up smoothies, sandwiches, and other snacks. On the other side of the hill, though, South Quad lacks any type of food amenities.
Both North Quad and South Quad house students and are down the hill which makes for a tiresome hike up the hill for food. It is already a challenge for students who live in these isolating areas, but the added burden of traveling for food makes things worse.
Senior Adam Venrick lived in King Hall and said, “I went to Slayter a lot. It was rare to go to a dining hall. If you are living on South Quad, you basically need to have a reason to go to a dining hall.”
Most students plan their days around making trips up the hill for food while also getting to classes on Academic Quad. Students have to hike up and down the hill three or more times a day.
People may wonder, why do they students want to live on South Quad? Sophomores tend to choose living down the hill if they are a part of the arts as those academic buildings and performance spaces are on South Quad.
Venrick said, “I liked living there. I would recommend it to any art student because it’s near the arts buildings. I would recommend it to anyone who values quiet.”
There are many perks to living on the picturesque quad, but the downfall of having minimal access to food is a piece that may turn students away.
An argument could be posed that students can travel into Granville for food, but a couple of businesses do not operate during late hours when students may be finishing rehearsals or staying up late studying.
These businesses do not utilize the Denison meal plan currency either, so students have to use money out of their own pockets. Also, with the pandemic, it may not be safe for students to go into these restaurants to grab food.
A solution to this problem would be to establish a concession stand inside the Eisner Center for the Performing Arts. Although food is not allowed in the Sharon Martin Hall, audience members could grab a snack during intermission.
There are also student workers in the Eisner, so this would create even more job opportunities in the building. The main point is that students who live on South Quad and students who take many courses down the hill would have access to food.
It would be difficult to fit a whole dining hall into the Eisner building and it is not absolutely necessary, but some sort of market or concession stand like the one in Slayter Union would suffice.
It is important for students to stay nourished and be able to use their meal plan without hiking up the stairs on South Quad for every meal.