Hark! A New Café on Campus

For a long time now, the dining area in Harkness House has sat unoccupied and silent, students passing by every day on their way to to classes, meetings and sports practices. Many have wondered why the space has gone unoccupied, and what the college planned to do with the empty, kitchen-equipped room.

This semester, it was announced that in Fall 2011, a new café will be built in the empty space, thanks to a a push from the student body and a $500,000 gift from the parents of a Conn alumna. The café will serve as both a place to buy food and a place for students to gather late at night.  In the email President Leo Higdon sent to students, he stated that the café “will be managed by an outside vendor and will offer specialty coffees and other non-alcoholic beverages, light meals and freshly baked goods in a casual, relaxed setting.”

The creation of the café in Harkness began in the Fall of 2007, when Leidy Valencia ’09, with the support of Senior Research Analyst John Nugent and the guidance of Dean of the College Armando Bengochea, worked to create a survey that asked the student body what kinds of social spaces they would like to see on campus. According to the survey, the majority of students wanted a “lounge-like atmosphere” located somewhere in South campus.

In 2009, SGA created the Commission for Student Academic and Social Spaces, a committee dedicated specifically to following this project to its completion. Valencia and the committee’s co-chair Lindy Nash ’11, encouraged other underclassmen to get involved, so there would be students still on campus when the café came to be.

Nash, though graduating soon, is excited about the solid plans for the café.

“I definitely think South Campus needs a hang-out spot when Harris and the other dining halls are closed,” she said.

Ulysses Hammond, Vice President for Administration, also played a large role in the project by helping the committee to test the space for sound and architectural capabilities, and aiding in the business proposal process. Outside vendors were encouraged to propose business ideas for the management of the café.

Although Bean & Leaf, a coffee shop in Downtown New London, was an initial possibility, President Higdon and the administration ultimately chose the corporation Sodexo as the most reliable partnership for the project. Sodexo helps manage similar cafès in other institutions. As Vice President Hammond explained, the company will be in charge of managing the café and hiring students. Students will be responsible for the programming of the space.

Hammond says that eventually, once the café has been established for a while, it will become a viable enterprise for both the college and the contractor. He is clear, however, that the café was brought about not by the administration, but the students. “I think this is going to be a great venue for students looking to have a relaxed and fun experience,” he said, and explained that the café will have an atmosphere much like an urban café, where students can not only plug in their computers and study, but also socialize with friends.

There is concern, however, that the new café will take away some of business from the other three cafés on campus. In particular, Coffee Grounds’ manager Joshua Gottesman ’11 and previous manager Ileana Herrera-Vasquez ’12 are both concerned about the new café’s presence on campus.

Both worry that the corporate-managed café in Harkness will prove to be too competitive to the other cafés on campus. Herrera-Vasquez was surprised that there was such a big push for the café in Harkness, as Coffee Grounds sells much of the same goods. She worries that the new café will “pit different parts of the community against each other,” as some students will flock to the new café and others will want to remain loyal to the community run and centered Coffee Grounds.

“It feels like there’s a duplication of efforts here,” said Gottesman. “And this is a very small campus; we have a very small target base. It would be more understandable if this were a university.”

Alternately, Marisa Trevino ’13, an avid coffee fan and a resident of South Campus, is excited for the new café in Harkness. “It will be nice to have a place closer than Coffee Grounds where I can hang out,” she said.

Dean Bengochea doesn’t believe that the other cafes on campus need to worry. “We want each space to be its own entity,” he said. “This isn’t meant to cannibalize the other cafes, we just wanted to provide students with more options.”