Emory Dining held the grand opening this week for Eagle Convenience and Subs, a new convenience store and deli. Located on the bottom floor of the Dobbs University Center (DUC) in a space that was formerly the Faculty Dining Room, Eagle Convenience offers an assortment of microwaveable food, snacks, candy, medicine, supplies and even Boar’s Head subs – all available until midnight seven days a week.
While only food can be purchased with Dooley Dollars, other items can be purchased with Eagle Dollars, cash or credit.
The new convenience store is an excellent addition to campus dining options. The DUC is centrally located on campus and accessible to most students, even those who have reduced or no meal plans yet spend much of their time on campus.
We appreciate the variety of healthy food options available, the selection of foods that require little preparation or cooking, the selection of pharmaceutical products and the friendly staff. And, as a student organization that works late hours two nights a week, the Wheel is especially grateful for a close and inexpensive option that is open until midnight.
Emory Dining has undergone a significant number of changes over the last couple of years, including new eateries like Highland Bakery at Goizueta Business School and Peet’s Coffee at Woodruff Library, as well as improvements to existing establishments, such as a more health-conscious Dobbs Market, an updated Zaya menu and local options and a small-scale convenience store in Cox Hall. These improvements demonstrate a commitment to reacting to student voices about their own dining needs. We have observed students’ needs being met with astounding immediacy.
The Student Activity & Academic Center (SAAC) located at Clairmont Campus recently introduced breakfast options, and restaurants such as Chick-fil-A and DBA Barbecue were rapidly replaced in Cox Hall after student feedback signified a desired change. Moreover, Eagle Convenience itself was announced at the beginning of this school year and opened just after fall break, a considerable turnaround.
These changes are the result of an effort led by Senior Director of the University Food Service Administration Dave Furhman, who has integrated Dining administrators and staff and student opinion through the student-run Food Advisory Committee Emory (FACE). In addition to co-chairs and permanent members, FACE invites any student to attend meetings and input suggestions for campus dining. In the past, FACE has conducted surveys and marketed itself well to determine student preferences on the various dining options at Emory.
Furhman spends substantial time in the DUC and Cox, observing and directly engaging with students for feedback about Emory’s food. He has visited other universities to assess potential improvements to Emory and regularly communicates with the Student Government Association (SGA); at a recent meeting, he informed members about the end of the 10-year Sodexo contract in the spring and the process by which the University will assess whether to renew it or to consider other food service providers. During the meeting, Furhman said if there are any students whose opinions have not been heard by the time the decision has been made, it will have been a failure on the part of himself and FACE.
Furhman’s consistent and outstanding commitment to Emory students and their dining habits should be recognized and lauded, as should FACE’s and its members for responding quickly and diligently to student suggestions. There seems to be a genuine concern about students when it comes to FACE. In particular, FACE’s Co-Chairs Goizueta Business School senior Karoline Porcello and College junior Molly Talman deserve recognition for facilitating the execution of these suggestions.
It is evident that Furhman and FACE take the needs of students to be of paramount importance in their decision calculus, sometimes even superseding financial considerations. We have noticed that Furhman’s approach to food at Emory is very practical – he recognizes how important food is to a college student’s lifestyle and the requisite convenience to accommodate busy schedules. FACE is also particularly good at identifying spaces on campus that could be used more efficiently and executing this, such as in the small space occupied by the Cox convenience store and in repurposing the Faculty Dining Room. Emory Dining and Emory Sustainability’s commitment to sustainability initiatives, such as expanding the Farmers Market and shifting to locally sourced food, is also commendable.
FACE has produced concrete and highly successful results. We believe that FACE is the model that other University student committees should follow, including open access to all students and a focus on gaining exposure so that students are kept in the loop. The fact that some other committees require applications seems bureaucratic, exclusive and unnecessary – the criterion should simply be student interest. Moreover, the activities of other committees are inexplicably kept under wraps or not marketed adequately.
Student Health Services is one such area that we believe would greatly benefit from following FACE’s model. Students from many divisions have voiced various concerns about the location and quality of service of health services that have yet to be met let alone acknowledged. The Division of Campus Life has a number of existing student committees whose efforts are more or less opaque to non-participating students. Even the Emory academic community has precedent for committees, such as the Commission on Liberal Arts (CoLA), that lack the expediency and commitment to student opinion that FACE advances.
Given its accomplishments as a relatively new initiative, it is clear that the FACE model has substantial merits, and other areas of the University should follow FACE’s and Furhman’s model. As students and beneficiaries of FACE’s efforts, we truly believe other committees can have a similar impact on students if they take note of the catalogue of Emory Dining’s improvements.
The above staff editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s editorial board.
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
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