{"id":4786,"date":"2010-10-04T18:44:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T22:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/?p=4786"},"modified":"2011-02-28T23:25:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T04:25:31","slug":"hark-a-new-cafe-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/2010\/10\/04\/hark-a-new-cafe-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Hark! A New Caf\u00e9 on Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4787\" title=\"Hark Cafe\" src=\"http:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Hark-Cafe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Hark-Cafe.jpg 250w, https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Hark-Cafe-150x116.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>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.<\/p>\n<p>This semester, it was announced that in Fall 2011, a new caf\u00e9 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 caf\u00e9 will serve as both a place to buy food and a place for students to gather late at night.\u00a0 In the email President Leo Higdon sent to students, he stated that the caf\u00e9 \u201cwill 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the caf\u00e9 in Harkness began in the Fall of 2007, when Leidy Valencia \u201909, 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 \u201clounge-like atmosphere\u201d located somewhere in South campus.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s co-chair Lindy Nash \u201911, encouraged other underclassmen to get involved, so there would be students still on campus when the caf\u00e9 came to be.<\/p>\n<p>Nash, though graduating soon, is excited about the solid plans for the caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely think South Campus needs a hang-out spot when Harris and the other dining halls are closed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>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 caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Although Bean &amp; 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 caf\u00e8s in other institutions. As Vice President Hammond explained, the company will be in charge of managing the caf\u00e9 and hiring students. Students will be responsible for the programming of the space.<\/p>\n<p>Hammond says that eventually, once the caf\u00e9 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 caf\u00e9 was brought about not by the administration, but the students. \u201cI think this is going to be a great venue for students looking to have a relaxed and fun experience,\u201d he said, and explained that the caf\u00e9 will have an atmosphere much like an urban caf\u00e9, where students can not only plug in their computers and study, but also socialize with friends.<\/p>\n<p>There is concern, however, that the new caf\u00e9 will take away some of business from the other three caf\u00e9s on campus. In particular, Coffee Grounds\u2019 manager Joshua Gottesman \u201911 and previous manager Ileana Herrera-Vasquez \u201912 are both concerned about the new caf\u00e9\u2019s presence on campus.<\/p>\n<p>Both worry that the corporate-managed caf\u00e9 in Harkness will prove to be too competitive to the other caf\u00e9s on campus. Herrera-Vasquez was surprised that there was such a big push for the caf\u00e9 in Harkness, as Coffee Grounds sells much of the same goods. She worries that the new caf\u00e9 will \u201cpit different parts of the community against each other,\u201d as some students will flock to the new caf\u00e9 and others will want to remain loyal to the community run and centered Coffee Grounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt feels like there\u2019s a duplication of efforts here,\u201d said Gottesman. \u201cAnd this is a very small campus; we have a very small target base. It would be more understandable if this were a university.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alternately, Marisa Trevino \u201913, an avid coffee fan and a resident of South Campus, is excited for the new caf\u00e9 in Harkness. \u201cIt will be nice to have a place closer than Coffee Grounds where I can hang out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Dean Bengochea doesn\u2019t believe that the other cafes on campus need to worry. \u201cWe want each space to be its own entity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t meant to cannibalize the other cafes, we just wanted to provide students with more options.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tmnf_excerpt\"><p>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 &hellip;<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4786"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7240,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4786\/revisions\/7240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecollegevoice.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}