As students returned from winter break and walked into the dining hall, they quickly noticed some changes: new tables and chairs, as well as the addition of booths. The project was completed over winter break as a collaboration between Tony Dawson, director of auxiliary services at Wheaton College; Bon Appétit and their consultants; Luis Colon, Bon Appetit’s general manager and Whitley Grey, assistant director of the facilities department’s planning and design team.
Bon Appétit, the management company that employs the Anderson Commons dining staff and provides all food options at the college, invested approximately one million dollars in the remodel.
Dawson, who oversees Bon Appétit and other campus services like Public Safety and CPO, said he hopes the students will steward the new furniture well.
“I would hope students take care of the furniture,” he said. “It’s restaurant-grade, so it won’t be easily damaged. But let’s all take care of it.”
Andrew McKay, a first-year math major, said he was conflicted because it felt like Anderson Commons is more crowded now, but he has also begun to enjoy the new furniture.
“My first impression was, ‘Why did they get rid of the old furniture?’ I liked the old furniture so much,” he said. “But I’m starting to like the newer furniture too.”
Lizzie Stone, a junior international relations and Spanish major, said she was pleasantly surprised by the new furniture and believes it has helped improve the community on campus. With the previous furniture, she said she felt it was often difficult to engage in conversation as it was easy to get distracted by people-watching or overhearing another table’s conversation.
“My friends and I were talking about this, and we think it’s now much more difficult to be distracted by other people,” said Stone. “Now we’re focusing on our own group and our own conversation, which I think is better. We’re being more present with each other.”
Dawson said his goal for the additions was exactly that: to improve the communal dining hall experience at Wheaton. He said the remodel, especially the wider variety of seating options and space between tables, was done with the intention of creating a less-crowded and more inviting space.
“Now the dining hall is, in a way, divided up into little dining rooms,” Dawson said. “I think that’s an advantage. It makes the space feel more like home.”
Jacob Fopma, a senior political science and communications major, said he was excited about improvements but felt that practical use of the furniture wasn’t made a priority in the end, even if it looks better.
“The dining hall definitely needed a face-lift,” said Fopma. “However, the new seating options seem to be focused more on aesthetics than functionality for students.”
Grey, who helped design the placements of the new furniture, explained that the inspiration came from a student survey that indicated issues with people finding places to sit, especially during lunch and dinner hours.
“What we learned is that the majority of people come to breakfast or lunch with themselves and one to two people with them,” she said. “This was a mismatch compared to the available four or six-person tables. So, when two people sat down at a four-person table, two seats were going unused. Even worse, when one person would sit down at a table for four, or six.”
Grey said the old furniture was donated to a local non-profit ministry that supports housing for veterans and single-parent families.
