In the battle for the game room, the students have come back to defeat the faculty and staff’s request for the transformation of the game room into their new dining room.
“We took some stats to show the university how important and beneficial the game room is to students,” said Paul Duffy ’05, FUSA president-elect. “It’s like the student’s living room and a place for them to relax. The game room is not going to be taken away.”
But now the faculty and staff have to find a new place for their dining room, since their old one is being turned into office space for main student operations. James Fitzpatrick, assistant vice president of student services, provided the faculty and staff a temporary spot for meals in the Oak Room where they received free soup and pastries.
“The faculty dining room was never heavily used,” said Fitzpatrick. “On average only five-to-ten people used it a day. So I decided to provide the staff with the Oak Room for the remainder of the semester.”
This temporary solution has not been fun and games for the faculty either.
“A dining room implies having hot food,” said Irene Mulvey, a mathematics professor. “In the Oak Room all we have is tables, chairs, soup and stale pastries.”
Other professors agreed with the sub- par circumstances.
“We feel the faculty and staff are being marginalized,” said Donald Greenberg, a psychology professor. “We feel this is a physical and political message against the faculty.”
Other professors added that they would feel embarrassed and ashamed to bring colleagues from outside the university to eat in the Oak Room. They felt no other major university in the country presents these types of circumstances to their faculty and staff.
When faculty and staff first presented the idea of having their new dining room in the game room, students, led by Kevin Neubauer and Paul Duffy, asked to have a meeting with the university council. The council agreed with the students that the game room is more beneficial to them than it might be to faculty, and now they are looking for other options.
“We are looking at making the Oak Room a permanent place for them, but also making it more appealing to them,” said Fitzpatrick. “Another great location may be the Levee because it’s never being utilized during lunch time during the week. The Levee can offer the appeal and ability for faculty to take colleagues from outside of the university into a nice environment to dine.”
Even though the faculty seems irritated at their situation right now, students are pleased to have the game room still in their possession.
“The game room is a perfect place to take a break and release stress,” said Kevin Nyrady’05, a skilled ping-pong player. “I have confidence that the teachers will understand that the game room will benefit us more than them.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” said Joe Fomenko ’04, a game room regular. “To be honest, I don’t see how faculty can even find the time to eat, when they are spending long hours trying to screw me out of decent grades and my future.”
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