Trey Fields, executive vice president of initiatives, addressed SGA senate on April 4 to seek senators’ input on the possibility of new additions to Tiger Dining with options such as Einstein’s Bagels and Panera Bread.
In planning the dining options for the Mell Street Classroom, the University considered Einstein’s Bagels upon students’ requests before being approached by Panera Bread, according to Fields.
“Recently, Glenn Loughridge, who’s the director of dining for the University, was approached by Panera Bread to be on the campus in some form, so that’s kind of a dynamic option,” Fields said.
“So a problem with that in our eyes is … that Einstein’s was voted on by the student body and overwhelmingly picked that,” Fields said. “We don’t want students to think that as SGA exec or as student leaders that we are trying to make unilateral decisions.”
Loughridge had the idea to potentially put Einstein’s Bagels on the bottom floor of the Haley Center and put Panera Bread in the Mell Street Classroom Building, according to Fields.
Fields said he’d like to conduct preliminary research and have students be a part of this decision-making process.
“You as senators are obviously leaders on this campus and part of your job is to reach out to your constituents, so I really encourage you to do that early on in your terms,” Fields said. “Go out and talk to students about this and see how they feel.”
Brandon Honeywell, SGA vice president, echoed Fields and encourages senators to get student input on potential dining changes.
“This week for office hours, instead of spending your office hours in the SGA office, I would love it if you guys would spend it on campus garnering feedback about that,” Honeywell said. “You’ll do that and write down the responses, and we’ll look at those next week when you come back.”
Jesse Westerhouse, SGA president, also said senators would benefit from contacting cabinet members to create beneficial relationships that will help with future projects down the road.
“As you may know, last week 80 new members of cabinet were selected, so over these next few weeks before summer starts I really, really encourage you to reach out to those people and build relationships with them,” Westerhouse said. “Just get to know them on a business level, but also on a personal level.”
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