The Student Center was scheduled to open at the beginning of the school year, but it has yet to open its doors to the campus community after almost three weeks into the fall semester.
Director for Student Center and Event Operations Jessica Way said the center’s opening depends on a variety of factors, such as when the handoff will happen between the university and the building’s contractor.
“It’s also combined with us being able to get into the building and train our staff on how to use everything and get all the furniture in and delivered,” said Way.
The Student Center is now expected to open Nov. 5.
The goal for the Student Center is to build a better community by having the majority of food services, all of the staff from the Student Union and the staff from the bookstore in one central location. Students can go to the Student Center to get books, buy tickets for events, visit Join Us Making Progress for volunteer opportunities and then enjoy a meal in one of the many readily available food stations.
“We are still all internal dining,” explained Way.
“We’ve got the ‘Kitchens,’ which is the dining room, but it is not at all what anyone has seen here before. There are all these different platforms.”
The selections inside the “Kitchens” are “Slice,” a pizza place; “Chefs,” a demo kitchen that will have different chefs demonstrating on monitors to help students learn how to cook; “Passport,” a world kitchen; “Flame,” a traditional Grille; and “Sizzle,” a Mongolian Grille. There will also be a salad bar called “Garden,” and “Etc.,” which will have everything else.
Between all of these restaurants the dining area will be open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Freshman meal plans will be unlimited so that students can have six small meals a day instead of perhaps eating a lot for one meal because it is the only meal they have all day. Anyone can go and hang out or study there for a few hours and just have a cup of coffee. There is also talk about having meal plans for commuting students, upperclassmen and faculty so that everyone can truly enjoy this new Student Center.
The Zinfandel Marketplace will also be moving into the Student Center. It will have soup, sandwiches, a grill, and a soft serve machine.
“What’s cool about that space is that we have named it Weyden and Brewster,” said Way, “which is actually the love interest from Jack London’s The Sea Wolf, tying in our mascot and the literary piece, which I think is nice on a college campus to pull all that back together.”
The Zinfandel Caf will be closing and moving to the Student Center along with Ameci’s, the Pub, the Commons and the Bookstore. The Pub, the Commons and the Student Union buildings will host classrooms and/or offices. Ameci’s will be a new lounge area for Sauvignon residents and the Bookstore will be demolished after it moves to the Student Center. Charlie Brown’s Café and Toast will remain in their current locations so students can purchase food in different locations on campus.
The Student Center brings promise to many Sonoma State students by broadening the dining options on campus as well as bringing everything to one centralized location.
