Category: Campus Life

At its April 15 meeting, Dave Furhman, senior director of food services administration, reported to the Council on plans to convert the Faculty Dining Room in the Dobbs University Center over the summer into a “campus convenience store.” The dining room currently serves “a small group of repeat customers of about 40 to 45 folks,” Fuhrman said. “It does not provide a great service to the wider community.” He added that the Faculty Dining Room operates at a loss of more than $100,000 per year, a loss that is subsidized by student meal plans. “We have seen a decline in the quality and service in our student meal plan program at the DUC in part because of this and some other subsidies we’ve had to finance over the years,” Furhman said. He cited several factors that have come together to instigate this change, including recommendations from the Committee on Class and Labor to eliminate exclusive spaces on campus; an expressed student desire for more informal interaction with faculty; student feedback requesting more dining variety on campus during evenings and weekends; the need to eliminate the financial loss; and the opportunity to test a new retail option as a new student center is being designed. The new store will provide high quality deli sandwiches as well as some speciality products, such as gluten-free, halal, and kosher foods.

In March, Bruce Covey, senior director of campus life technology and bookstore relations, along with Paul Byrnes, director of business services, solicited the Council’s feedback on Emory’s bookstores. Covey reported that the bookstore space in the Oxford Road building has gotten “rave reviews,” especially in student surveys. Sales are up in every area but textbooks, but, he added, “we haven’t received a textbook complaint from a faculty member that has reached my office in more than three years,” compared to more than 10 complaints per year in the past.

Covey continued, “The challenge is that we are in an industry that is changing rapidly. As we continue to enhance our relationship with Barnes & Noble, we also need to look 5 to 10 years into the future to think about how the bookstore will affect our community.” As students continue to purchase textbooks from other sources, he added, the bookstores are repositioning themselves by extending their range of services. Currently, the bookstore offers campus office delivery on purchases, faculty/staff discounts, and a computer repair center.

Senior Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Ajay Nair spoke to the Council in April on his division’s increasing efforts to strengthen the connections between academic and campus life. “How do we create a seamless, interdisciplinary learning community?” he began. Nair described a range of new initiatives in Campus Life that aim to bring in-class and out-of-class experiences closer together. Those initiatives include a stronger programmatic vision for the DUC, improved support for international students, a developing “intervention services team” for students with complex psychosocial needs, the drafting of a protest and dissent policy for Emory, efforts to build a “living laboratory” in residential life by “connecting the classroom to the community,” addressing critical issues of diversity on campus, and growth opportunities for sorority and fraternity life around intellectual pursuits, service, character development, and social responsibility