Aaron Johnson – General Assignment Reporter
Southern Connecticut State University will be making new changes to the Michael J. Adanti Student Center food court menu, effective immediately. The changes are to help continue to finance the conclusion of the Buley Library, as well as, the new science building on the academic side of campus.
“We believe that by raising the overall prices of Blue Agave, 2mato, and Nathan’s it will help us finish the projects around campus sooner than anticipated,” said Paul Kidd, the head building manager from Southern.
The major news coming from Kidd and his group along with the raising of prices is the closing of campus favorite Mondo’s Subs. The closing of the popular lunch spot for on-campus and off-campus students has been met with much frustration and anger from students that have heard the announcement.
“It’s ridiculous. I have about one hour between my classes to get lunch and all I eat is Mondo’s,”
said J.R. Anthony.
A commuter from Stamford, Anthony has been at Southern since transferring from UConn-Stamford and said that he is most upset about the timing of the announcement .
“I just felt like the entire thing was shady by Southern,” he said. “It was a really hush-hush kind of thing. The only reason why I know anything about it is because I worked at Mondo’s.”
Along with Anthony, freshman Tia Norwood said that she thinks that Southern is trying to sneak the price raise and the closing of Mondo’s without the students knowledge.
“It’s disappointing to think that Southern would stoop so low to make major changes like this without not only telling the students beforehand, but also doing with just so the building can be done faster,” said Norwood.
Southern has not officially released a statement for students, but Kidd said that a statement will be sent out to SCSU student’s e-mail within the coming week.
“We understand the frustrations that some students will have with the decision. But we here at Southern believe this is the best option we have to not only finish construction on Buley Library, but also the new science building,” said Kidd.
Under the new policy, Southern looks to save about $12,000 which will speed up the process of the building by a few weeks. Anthony does not think that the increase is enough to take the course of action the university has done.
“I’m out of a job because the school wanted to save money,” said Anthony. “It’s just annoying that they’re doing this in the middle of the year. At least they could wait until the semester is over and close everything down once the fall semester starts. That would be the logical thing.”
Kidd said that despite the backlash that has come from the decision to close Mondo’s and raise the prices of the remaining businesses there is a lot of excitement to finish both building ahead of schedule.
“Although we are taking Mondo’s off Southern’s campus for good,” said Kidd. “I think our students will understand that it is for the greater good and it will benefit them in the long run much more than a daily sandwich ever could.”
The increase of prices at Blue Agave, Nathan, and 2mato will remain for the duration of the building project around campus. The main outrage students have about this increase is that Southern has also decided to cease the anywhere meals for on-campus students with a meal plan.
“The reason we decided to stop the anywhere meals is because this way the school can now use the thousands of dollars that were being spent and put them into these projects,” said Kidd. “We are trying to create the best facilities for our students here at Southern and by using these cutbacks and increase we believe we are on the way to doing just that.”
