The Canisius coffee bar in all its former glory. Mirror file photo
It’s 7:50 a.m. on a Monday. You stumble out of bed, pull on some appropriately preppy Fairfield apparel, and drag yourself to your 8 a.m. class in Canisius Hall. You walk through the building’s front doors, eyes still half closed, counting down the seconds until you can get your hands on that hot cup of coffee from the stand in the front entranceway.
Nope. Sorry. No coffee for you.
One of the many changes at Fairfield this year due to serious budget cuts was the closing of the popular coffee stand in the entranceway to Canisius. As a result, many students are left without their morning coffee fix or their midday snack break between classes.
So how will those unlucky students handle their 8 a.m. classes without coffee? Unless they go to bed at 9 p.m. the night before (clearly impossible), there’s no way they can truly function at that early hour.
A glimmer of hope appeared when Jazzman’s and Barone Dining Hall began opening at 7:30 a.m. But even though Jazzman’s opens early, walking to the BCC to get a cup of coffee doesn’t really seem worth it. When you factor in the time it takes to walk to the BCC, wait in line with other coffee addicts jonesing for their morning fix, and walk over to your 8 a.m. class, that cup of coffee has cost you 15 precious minutes you could have spent sleeping.
Even the idea of going to the dining hall doesn’t work out; a single cup of coffee would cost you a precious meal swipe, unless you got up even earlier to eat an entire breakfast in a futile attempt legitimize your trip up to Barone.
In place of the coffee stand, two new vending machines have been installed in the entranceway to Canisius Hall; one featuring drinks, the other filled with snack foods. But even those new additions are leaving students disappointed.
“I went to get a soda from the vending machines, since I didn’t have time to go to the BCC for a coffee — but it was empty! There were no drinks in the vending machine at all,” said Courtney Monaghan ’12.
Tori Rovegno ’12 was also disappointed when she heard the coffee stand had been permanently removed this school year.
“I’ve been in classes [last year] when I was starving, and I could run down [to the coffee/snack stand] and get food,” she said. “It was nice to know the option was always there.”
The distance to Jazzman’s or the Stag to grab a snack doesn’t always work with many students’ busy schedules. Some students have two or three classes in a row, scheduled right through lunchtime; how do they get a snack to break the monotony of lectures and hunger?
“It’s really inconvenient, especially when we only have 15 minutes between classes,” said Rovegno.
Most students either run to the BCC and get to their next class a few minutes late (and must sit through the uncomfortable glare from the professor silently punishing them or other students staring at their Stag sandwich), or forego food until after classes, their rumbling stomachs audible to the rest of the class.
How much of an impact will cutting the coffee stand really have on Fairfield’s budget?
“The line used to be down the hall, so I don’t understand why they say that there’s not enough revenue,” Monaghan said. “I think it would be wonderful if they brought it back!”
Unfortunately, there have been no rumblings of plans to bring the coffee/snack stand back anytime soon — students will just have to learn how to powerwalk to the BCC for snacks and coffee, or stuff their backpacks full of food to sustain themselves through a long day of classes.
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