Student Union President Andy Hogan '11 announced that there are plans to open a new temporary dining location, the Upstairs Café, at the beginning of next semester. He made the announcement during the annual State of the Union Address last Thursday.The café will be in the Gluck Lobby outside the Levin Ballroom and is part of an effort to alleviate overcrowding problems in the Usdan Student Center dining facilities, but Hogan stressed that it is only a temporary solution. The eventual goal is to have a permanent dining facility in the Mandel Center for the Humanities, which is currently under construction.

The café, which will serve cold sandwiches and salads, will open on the first day of classes for spring semester, Hogan said. Both Hogan and Director of Dining Services Michael Newmark indicated that the sandwiches and salads available at the Upstairs Café will be different from those already offered at other campus locations.

Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins said, "At the peak periods of lunchtime, we have an issue [with long lines], . so what we are looking for is just to provide another option to the students."

Collins said that the café is aimed at students who may not have more than 20 minutes or half an hour for lunch and cannot wait in long lines. With the café, those students will be able to get food to go, said Collins. He said that students currently have the option of getting food to go from the Provisions on Demand Market but that there were issues of overcrowding there as well.

Hogan said of the café, "I think it's a really good temporary step. The lines are only bad during peak periods before and after class, and I think this new dining facility is only going to be open for lunch and it will definitely help during the peak periods." Collins said that the café would probably be open for about a two-hour period during the peak hours that students are eating lunch, from Monday to Friday.

Newmark wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that "the location is currently scheduled to operate Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m." Students can use "points, dining dollars, cash, credit cards, WhoCash and meal plan equivalency" at the café, wrote Newmark. The café will only operate until a new, more permanent dining location is opened in the Mandel Center, which is scheduled to open before the fall 2010 semester.

The Student Union has been working throughout the semester on issues of overcrowding, which is partly a result of an increase in the size of the student body based on the recommendations of the Curriculum and Academic Restructuring Steering committee. Hogan and other Union members have conducted surveys of the student body and made presentations to the administration and the Board of Trustees about issues of overcrowding in dining halls, increasing class sizes and a lack of housing options.



-Alana Abramson and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.