OCT. 17 — As on every Thursday evening on Conn’s campus, the students of the Student Government Association (SGA) General Assembly assembled (‘cause it’s an assembly) in Ernst Common Room to address the week’s business and fulfill the student function of the covenant of shared governance.
This week, the assembly welcomed Resident District Manager Peter Johnson and East Region District Manager Toby Chenette from Chartwells to discuss the company’s plans for Harris renovations scheduled to take place over the summer. They dialed in architect Michael Godin who virtually brought the room through renderings for the proposed changes.
They expressed a focus on the social aspect of dining and a primary goal of making the dining hall feel more comfortable. Chartwells plans to create more nooks, add study pods, and provide more diverse seating options including large and small tables for different-sized groups as well as the choice of counter, booth, or standard chairs.
Based on their experiences and data from other schools, Chartwells has observed a desire for something other than cafeteria-style dining areas. They also recognized the needs neurodivergent students may have for a dining environment that is less overwhelming. While the 1973 Room is staying relatively the same, the larger seating area will be broken up into smaller, quieter sections. Chartwells also plans to provide charging stations along the walls to enable students to more easily use Harris as a location to hold meetings or do work.
The planned seating count after renovations is equal to the current count but Godin hopes the space will be more efficient and feel less crowded through reorganization.
Unrelated to seating, Chenette was excited to announce plans to install two high-speed panini presses that will effectively press sandwiches in an average of 35 seconds as well as a new permanent smoothie station. Godin also expressed his opinion that our salad bars are “funky,” a candidness from an architectural view that I appreciated.
In addressing questions from the students, Godin confirmed that all renovations will be compliant with the ADA and the space will be traversable for students using mobility aids.
The funds for this renovation are provided by Chartwells. This decision was part of the College’s contract with the company when Conn decided to outsource. While Conn does not currently have the funds to finance a renovation of this scale, Chartwells does. Over the long-term course of the contract, Conn will ultimately pay Chartwells back, but the goal is for students both now and in the future to benefit from the capital Chartwells is currently able to provide.
The assembly was, on the whole, quite pleased with the presentation and seemed excited about the prospect of both a pretty and a functional dining location. The skepticism on many faces seemed relieved when they learned the source of the renovation funds. On that pleasant conclusion, the meeting moved to standard government business.
The assembly passed the previous week’s minutes, announced no new resolutions, and no old resolutions. Though a resolution had been considered previously for diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as sexual violence prevention training requirements for student clubs and organizations, the Office of Campus Life plans to incorporate this as a policy through the office, making a resolution redundant. The assembly may consider a resolution in the future, however, in the name of redundancy, since redundant and useless are not synonymous. In the meantime, Chair of Equity and Inclusion Kazi Stanton-Thomas ‘26 is focusing their attention on the development of this effort as an office policy.
In other notes, some students complained that the construction on campus is loud. Then, the meeting ended. (Not really, we talked more, but that’s everything important and interesting!)
The purpose of this column is to provide information about the work of student government at Conn for people on and off campus. All readers should be aware that, as not only the writer but the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the paper in which these are published, as well as a voting member of the General Assembly as part of my role as class president, I am a super, duper biased author (but also very knowledgeable and entertaining).
