The Muse, vol. 44, no. 12 (21 January 1994)

              January 21, 1994
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Volume 44, Number 12
"It should be nice. A lot brighter, compared to the old one."
TSC food court set to open in February
By CHRIS MYRICK	
After coping with over half
a year of overcrowded cafeterias, lack of seating space,
and long lunchtime lineups
there may soon be some relief for the students and faculty of Memorial University.
Originally, when the TSC
cafeteria closed its doors for
the final time last June, it
was reported that "the Student Services Centre could
be in place as soon as September (1993)".
Subsequently, following
several delays due both to
architectural examination of
the building as well as a two
week process of tenure for
construction bids, the project
hit a further obstacle as the
necessity of asbestos removal set the tentative date back
further to November.
Currently, if all goes accordingto plan, the Thomson
Student Centre (TSC) food
court should be officially open
by the middle of February.
Accordingto Paula Grimes,
President of the Council of
the Students Union (CSU),
the food court "will be simi
lar to those in malls" and
should provide "a wide range
and a wide variety of food".
As the CSU is still in negotiation with businesses a tentative list of outlets for the
court could not be made avail-
able.
While unwillingto give specifics on which businesses
have applied for space,
Grimes did however indicate
that each of the six outlets
will individually cater to the
different varieties of food
desired by the student body.
'
Leon Peddle tries to take it to the rim in a Sea
Hawks game versus the UPEI.
Photo by Herb Bradley
Using information obtained
by a CSU/Student Housing
survey regarding the food
preferences of students, the
CSU is "currently negotiating with food companies
which offer foods similar to...
the types students would like
to see."
Grimes further said that
the court will provide food
ranging from "health foods
to hamburger and fries" as
well as "muffins, donuts, coffee and things like that."
Despite the additional cost
and delay caused by the removal of asbestos, the final
cost of construction for the
food court should not exceed
the initially anticipated figure of 1.2 million.
"A lot of things were taken
into account [when estimating the cost]... when we had
the referendum on the
smoke-room, we had the
money allotted and it would
have evened out there," said
Grimes.
"The smoke-room would
have cost an additional
$100,000 and the cost of asbestos removal wasn't that."
The food court itself will
have a seating capacity of
600, almost twice that of the
old TSC cafeteria, with an
additional 550 provided by
the existing seating in the
Breezeway. Accordingto Bud
Keith, one of the workers on
the project, "It should be nice.
A lot brighter, compared to
the old one."
Providing further space
will be the re-opening of the
vault which should precede
opening of the food court itself. According to Grimes the
renovations to the vault in
clude "basically new lighting, new chairs and a new
paint job". Additionally, with
the opening of a new games
room, Grimes foresees the
vault as becoming a "room
that the clubs and societies
can use for larger socials,
giving them the option for
large socials or smaller socials".
Additional space for seating was gained by the construction of new liquor-storage space. Previously alcohol
was stored in several different rooms throughout the
TSC. The current renovations include an addition to
the front of the building, adjoining to the Breezeway,
which will be exclusively for
the storage of alcohol.
"Instead of having three or
four separate rooms throughout the building, we now will
have a single storage space
for the Breezeway and the
university,"said Grimes. The
cost for this external renovation was included as a part of
the original amount allotted
for construction.
Although a wider choice of
food items will be offered,
students who are already
part of the existing meal plan
may not be able to take immediate advantage of the
opening. Grimes does however suggest that it is a future possibility.
"It's something that is presently being studied by Student Housing that may be
down the road, the meal plan
may be amended so that students can use it in both areas
[food court and cafeterias]".
Yet she adds "it could be a
couple of years before anything like this happens".
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