After nearly two months of winter break, Union University students have returned to a newly renovated Brewer Dining Hall featuring updated lighting, additional seating and hardwood floors.
Along with the aesthetic changes, new appliances have been added to the kitchen including a meat smoker, ice cream machine and pastry oven, allowing for a wider variety of menu items for students.
A project of this size would typically take up to four months, but contractors completed the renovation in 52 days. The official grand opening of the new Brewer Dining Hall took place on Feb. 14.
“We’ve actually seen that students are eating in the dining hall more,” said Union University vice president of business affairs Rick Taphorn. “Our numbers are up 46% more than last spring.”
While the numbers show a positive response to the renovation, the changes also allow students to experience university dining in a new way, including the opportunity “for students to see food prepared in front of them,” Taphorn said.
The dining hall renovations fulfill functional purposes, but administration hopes the new environment will foster social and emotional health among the student body.
“This is one of the primary places for community on campus,” said Jim Erickson, head of Union University creative dining. “I think that the new renovations will encourage people to come, eat, build community and stay for a while.”
Jake Guyette, a senior business marketing major and member of the student government association’s “Cobo Committee” experienced firsthand how dining hall administration kept students at the focus of the renovation.
“This was a very student-involved process,” Guyette said.
Guyette described how administration consulted the “Cobo Committee” on matters such as lighting and utensils for the new dining hall and valued students’ opinions on the changes.
A second-semester senior, Guyette noticed fellow students taking their meals to go more often and frequenting the dining hall less in recent semesters. He views the renovation as a new chapter for university dining.
“The new ‘Cobo’ is modern,” Guyette said. “But I think what I like most is that ‘Cobo’ is full again.”
Photo by Laila Al-Hagal
