There are many spaces on campus that are underutilized and could serve the campus community much better.
The purpose of this forum is to brainstorm ideas of what we can do with these places, and how we can make them work for us, the students.
Recently, I went to the Bobcat Café during the day and was met with silence. Some find this silence refreshing and I must admit it was a respite from the middle school students in the dining hall. Still, my first thought was, why are we wasting this space? The Bobcat has a lot of potential and is quite spacious. As far as I know this space is used only for occasional activity, such as poker or the Tunnel of O – and the bar is open on the weekends.
This empty and underused space got me thinking about serving the students, and the main thing I care about is my coffee. In my opinion, one shared by many, Sodexo cannot make a cup of coffee worth drinking, and finding a good cup of tea is impossible.
So why don’t we rent out half of the space of the Bobcat to a coffee shop?
This would provide other options to students when it comes to coffee – something many of us drink until one eye is twitching uncontrollably. Also, in my mind this would make further use of one of the most underused spaces on campus.
What do you think? Do you have an idea about another area on campus we could use better, to better serve students?
Please use the comments section to start a discussion. Though I do ask that you keep all criticism constructive and positive. This post is meant to create positive change!
There are a few issues with renting out the Bobcat to a third-party. First off would be renovation. To truly make the space feel like it belongs, the business moving in would have to be made accommodations like more plugs for their equipment, a counter to put it all, cameras for security surveillance since the school would be liable if someone broke into their space for any reason. Another issue would be student events, the coffee shop would still take up space and reduce the amount of people that could participate since the Maximum Occupancy would have to change due to the less amount of space. The third problem is we already have the Hutch. Green Mountain coffee is amazing and if you don’t think so you probably just haven’t had their better blends like Witch’s Brew or Jamaican Me Crazy. They’re so big, in fact, that they were the ones to make the Keurig. If the coffee shop should go anywhere it’s the place that’s literally designed to be a small cafe venue. The only issue with the Hutch is its restricted hours and lack of variety.
Thanks for the thoughtful response!
I just have to agree with you.