As a part of the ongoing renovations to the Culp Center, the university held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new dining hall on campus.
“Eating together is such an important part of building a community and culture,” Virginia Foley, speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees, said. “Our new dining hall is where students can gather with their other family – their ETSU family – to share laughs, to share advice and to form bonds.”
ETSU President Brian Noland gave a speech at the opening ceremony thanking the BurWil Construction Company, the Division of Student Life and Enrollment and the student body.
“Students made this possible,” Dr. Noland said.
During the opening ceremony speech, Student Government Association President Aamir Shaikh talked about how he had overheard a freshman talking positively about the new dining hall.
“This last week I overheard the comforting words of a freshman, who upon entering the new space remarked, ‘I’ve only been here a week, but it feels like I’ve been here forever,'” Shaikh said.
Shaikh also stated that over the summer a survey was sent out to students requesting suggestions for the new dining hall name. He said that they received nearly 1,300 responses.
“This space matters to the students, and it matters to us that they have a say in the design.”
As a part of the festivities, there were also vendors with free samples located in the Ballroom, cheese and chocolate fondue fountains and a magician.
ETSU junior Cameron Phillips said that he likes the size of the dining hall, but he hopes that more improvements will come.
“More seating more than anything because it was still hard to find a seat with this many people,” Phillips said. “Once there’s outdoor seating it will be a lot better.”
Jeff Howard, associate vice president for Student Life and Enrollment, said that the dining hall has improved but more improvements are in store.
“It’s much bigger, much brighter, lighter, but we’re still in that soft opening phase, so it’s going to keep improving with time,” Howard said. “All of the new furnishings and of course the balcony aren’t even all finished yet, so by January 2020 it’s going to be even better than it is now.”
