Haggerty Hall will receive a makeover, providing a place to eat, hang out or study
By Elizabeth Tertadian
In Haggerty, a 52-inch TV rests, turned off. A wall of computers sit without users checking their Facebook or e-mail. The couches are empty. People walk in and out, crossing the lounge on their way without a second thought.
"Everyone has their own little apartment," junior Stephanie Fuchs said. "Why go to the lounge? We don't need more space to study."
By next semester, students will be singing a different tune. The Haggerty lounge is going to receive a makeover, providing students with a new place on campus to eat, hang out and study.
Plans to turn Haggerty lounge into an internet café have been underway for the past two years, and are finally coming together.
According to Associate Vice President for Student Life the Rev. John Donato, C.S.C., the final budget is still under discussion, but the renovation will happen this year.
The push is to have it up and running by next semester.
The vision for the space is to be an Internet café with an atmosphere similar to Starbucks', where students can get coffee and breakfast in the morning, and paninis, chili, gelato and other late-night snacks in the evening. The goal is for the space to be a meeting place for students to come together and hang out.
"A Starbucks-esque coffee house," Donato said. "Very Portland feel."
The tentative schedule has the café being open from 7 a.m. to noon, and reopening from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m.
"I'm totally in favor of it!" Fuchs said. "It would be more convenient because we're so far away from the Cove."
According to Fuchs, the lounge is hardly ever used.
"It's cute they try to hold events, but no one ever goes," she said.
The renovation, which will involve the entire Haggerty lounge, is expected to change this. In addition to espresso and food, there is a stage in the plans that students can use for entertainment.
According to Donato, the idea is to have an open-mic type of setting, where students can perform songs, read poetry and stage other small-scale entertainment.
"The goal is to be small and intimate, not huge and smelly," said Kirk Mustain, General Manager of Bon Appetit, which will provide the food.
According to Mustain, bringing in outside vendors would be too complex and not beneficial in the long run.
Payment will be entirely cashless, meaning that students will be able to use credit or debit in addition to their meal plan or points.
The café is the first of a huge change to food services at UP. The larger vision is to move away from basic meal plans and towards a declining balance system, which is where students pay for the food they actually eat, not a meal.
According to Donato, the revamped lounge will be comparable to a similar venue in one of the residence halls at Reed College.
"This will be bigger and better," Donato said.
With just over 600 students now living on the Village side of campus due to the addition of Fields and Schoenfeldt this fall, the justification for another food spot was brought to the forefront of the administrations mind.
Not only will the Haggerty café benefit the students living there and in Fields and Schoenfeldt, but also the students living in houses around the area and faculty, said Donato.
"Students over there have a perception that they're on the edge of campus, which really they are not," Director of Residence Life Michael Walsh said. "This will help them feel more included."
A meeting on Sept. 28 determined the tentative schedule of the lounge, as well as what it will look like and who will be doing what.
Those who met included Donato, Walsh, Director of Facilities Planning Paul Luty, Physical Plant Director Thomas Blume, ASUP President Colton Coughlin, and Director of Technical Support Paul Erdmann.
Together, they are working to make the café happen. It is very much a team project, said Donato.
They were looking to do something do to draw Tyson and Haggerty students out of their individual spaces and into the communal area, and see the café as a way to do this.
"This represents a whole new project opportunity and community building opportunity that hasn't existed in the past," said Walsh.
The hourly schedule is still tentative.
The team is doing studies of demand at the Cove during the possible hours for the new cafe because they don't want the Haggerty site to compete for business with The Cove.
As far as a name for the gathering spot, Donato says it's up to students in Senate, if they want to be involved.
They will have the opportunity to vote and submit possible names.
"I think it should be called Peggy's after Peggy Haggerty," Walsh said. "I think people would like that name."
Haggerty Hall is named after Lawrence and Mary Ellen Haggerty, parents of Regent Peggy Haggerty, who provided the primary funding for the building's construction.
This project is number one in the improvement budget for ASUP, which is part of the fee all students pay.
Last year the Senate used the funds to renovate the Villa Maria basketball court, because the funding and plans for the lounge renovation were not available. This year, organizers say, it's going to happen.
"We've waited a long time for this," Donato said.
