Late-night wings, cheese steaks, frozen yogurt and white paper bags filled with candy are some things most sophomores, juniors and seniors at the College fondly remember getting from T/W in their slippers when they lived in Travers and Wolfe Halls as freshmen.
"We ate there at least five times a week," Chris Civitarese, junior marketing major, said.
Freshmen living in the Towers this year, however, feel they cannot take advantage of the downstairs dining hall's convenience.
"No one ever wants to go (to T/W) and waste their points," Maureen Haggerty, freshman Spanish major, said.
This is because food can only be purchased from T/W with points, of which freshmen on campus have a limited supply under the Carte Blanche system.
"I think a lot more people would go there if the meal plan was different," Haggerty said. "(T/W) is so much more convenient and I like the food better."
Sodexho employees have noticed a considerable difference in business this year from previous years.
"A lot less people have been coming in here (compared to last year)," Tanesia Dean, a Sodexho employee working in T/W, said.
Felicia Morris, another Sodexho employee who works in T/W, said she also noticed a decrease in this year's business from last year's.
"This year it's quiet," she said. "Last year it wasn't as quiet. More people came last year," she said.
This is despite the recent additions of a CD jukebox and two pool tables to the dining hall.
"The jukebox is cool," Civitarese said, "but that dining hall was created primarily for the freshmen. So therefore, the emphasis should be placed on their experience and convenience."
Mike Chiumento, junior English and secondary education major, said he likes the fact that he no longer has to wait in line for food at T/W and also likes the fact that there are now pool tables in the dining hall.
"I don't like the fact that you don't get quarters from the register, though," he said, noting that students must bring their own change in order to use the pool tables.
He also said he doesn't like the way the jukebox will often blast music that was not selected by any students, drowning out the sound coming from the TVs playing mtvU and also making it difficult to hear conversation.
While some upperclassmen, like Chiumento, see the lack of freshmen and long lines in T/W as a benefit, Civitarese would rather know the freshmen have a better opportunity to utilize the dining hall as he had in his freshman year.
"It was great that it was downstairs," he said. "I loved not having to walk to Eickhoff (Hall) or the C-store or the student center. There wasn't as much variety, but the convenience definitely made up for it. I ate there way more than Eickhoff (Hall) which is a major reason why I think this new system is flat-out stupid."
As a College Ambassador, Civitarese said having T/W downstairs is one of the best perks to living in Travers and Wolfe Halls. "And that's something that I always talked up in my tours," he said. "Now they can't really take advantage of it."
