Unbeknownst to most students, Dining Services is moving Temaki and Tea into the old Hardee’s building on Presque Isle Avenue and adding a smoothie bar. While this is certainly an odd combination, students were not involved in the discussions about how the Hardee’s building would be used by the university.
As the people who keep this campus alive, we feel that student and faculty opinions should be heard and hopefully utilized when big decisions – like those concerning eateries – are made. Similar to what happened with making the Wildcat Den all-you-can-eat earlier this semester, a judgment was made without discussing it with the campus first, and students and faculty are expected to cooperate.
It seems deceitful and sneaky that Dining Services and the administration are making such important decisions without talking to the greater university.
The current plan for Temaki and Tea is that it will remain in Hedgcock until the end of the Winter 2011 semester. It’s anticipated that a bagel shop will open in its place. Most students would probably agree that the last thing NMU needs is another place to buy bagels. Polling the students on what they would like to see in Temaki and Tea’s place would have been a valuable opportunity to get ideas, but Dining Services decided it would simply fill it with a product that, next to coffee, is the widest thing available on campus.
Another issue that students should be involved with is how the money is used. If Dining Services is sitting on a sum of money that can afford to renovate an entire building, students should be involved in the discussion of how that money is used, especially considering they’re the ones who are paying each semester for meal plans. With money as tight as it is, we feel that students should be included in the decisions about where money is spent.
Students deserve to be aware of changes that are happening around campus, preferably before they are decided, and the opportunity to be heard. They pay tuition every semester to a university that is expected to be fair and transparent. We hope that students will be better included in decisions made now and in the future.
