Alongside the opening of Freshens, the LaRita Boren Campus Center also welcomed the new and improved Chick-fil-A, now open as of Feb. 19th.
This year marks the completion of many construction projects that have been in progress on campus.
The process has not been without its challenges.
A recent student announcement disclosed that students were no longer allowed to share meal swipes, which received pushback. Soon, a petition followed, created by an anonymous student who now has 872 signatures in protest. The petition argued that the policy “change” negatively impacted students, listing various reasons why.
However, Stephen Olson, vice president for business and finance/CFO, explained that the meal swipe announcement was not a policy change but simply a restatement of the policy that had already been active.
“The policy hasn’t changed,” he said. “What has changed is what I’ll call the enforcement or implementation of it because we just recently learned that people were swiping other people in.”
Though the meal swipe policy did not change, the Chick-fil-A environment did. Chick-fil-A officially opened on Feb. 19.
Olson originally mentioned that it was set to reopen at the end of January. He explained how the organization itself had very high standards and expectations for it to open. The opening date was delayed because of a few setbacks in the POS software and pieces not arriving on time.
The goal for renovating Chick-fil-A was to create a model that is similar to a Chick-fil-A franchise, instead of an outlet, Olson said.
A few things that are staying the same are the faces behind the counter. The workers employed by Taylor have not changed among all the other alterations, although some of the managers have mentioned that they would love more employees to lighten the workload.
Fran Percy is one of the familiar faces. Her official title is a floater — meaning she gets to move between working in the kitchen and helping students scan their ID cards.
“I really appreciate the way that our managers have helped keep everything going,” she said.
The most rewarding part of her job is the chance that she has gotten to know so many students as she serves them their food.
In addition to dining changes, last Monday, the new app was revealed: Nown Campus.
Students can use the dining app, as in previous years, to keep track of how many meal swipes they have left and where they would be available. It also allows them to keep track of how many dining dollars they have left.
The app’s delayed release was due to copyright conversations that took place. Even though the app is owned by Taylor, the app’s rights needed to be transferred to AVI since they are the official carriers.
While many things are changing, Taylor’s dining professionals have continually expressed that their goal, no matter what, is that the dining experience for students will always aim toward excellence. There may be highs and lows in the process, but Olson asks that students bear with them as they work toward the best possible experience for the Taylor community.
