A Facebook event which triggered the alterations to Café Q’s schedule took place on Sunday, Nov. 8.
The event, advertised through a Facebook group as the “Entire Campus Dinner at the RAT,” was originally an attempt to rally as many students as possible to go to the Bobcat Den, also known as the “Rat,” in order to make a statement about the dining hours and general food service. When Chartwells extended the hours at Café Q, the event was then moved there.
The eat-in unofficially started at 6:30 and lasted until the Café’s closing, generating at least 200 students during that time period. This didn’t create an overwhelming environment by any stretch, contrary to the intended vision. Lines were short and many seats were open in the cafeteria. But sophomore Mike Scaduto, the creator of the event on Facebook, did not expect a vast amount of people.
“The turnout at the Café Q event on Nov. 8 was pretty much as expected for us,” Scaduto said. “A lot of students left the University for the weekend and with a large number of H1N1 cases we lost a lot of people we had expected to see there.”
Café Q began its new temporary schedule last Friday, Nov. 6, pushing Scaduto to move his planned event to the cafeteria.
“Had the event gone through like originally planned at the ‘Rat,’ I expect a lot more people would have showed up,” Scaduto said. “A lot of people are tired and frustrated with the food service here, therefore a lot of people were excited to make a statement like the ‘Rat’ dine-in aimed for. However, when the event turned to supporting the new hours at the Café Q, we definitely lost a large number of supporters.”
Scaduto also had help in organizing the event from fellow sophomores Gabe Guerino, Katie Lovett, Danny McGrath, Anthony Puorro and John Steinberg.
“We decided to start the event about a month ago,” Scaduto said. “We were all sitting in the dorm on a Sunday evening thinking about what to eat because the ‘Rat’ was too full to get food there.”
Some changes to the Bobcat Den were also implemented to make the service quicker. Pre-made sandwich and wrap options are now available at Mondo Subs and an extra grill is now used for the Mexican and Panini station.
