Another dorm getting shut down

Tere North · Thu Oct 04, 2018 1:17 pm

wiu712 wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:45 am Western did have more cafeterias in past years. The "flying saucers" at Tanner and Wetzel were cafeterias.

The original cafeterias for both Thompson and Higgins were on the top floor of each dorm. That made for spectacular views. But having to haul the food up 19 floors and bring the garbage back down was not very practical. So a ground-level cafeteria was added-on to Thompson, and the top-floor cafeterias were closed.

Food service options have decreased over the years. The cafeteria at Lincoln-Washington-Grote was shut down several years ago.

Food service for the Freshmen dorms (Bayliss, Henninger, and Tanner) is very limited. Only an evening meal is served Sunday-Thursday. There is no breakfast, no lunch, and no Friday/Saturday dinner. That means a long walk to either Thompson or Corbin-Olson.

Back when I went to Western, Saga Food Service ran the cafeterias. Saturday nights were "Steak Night". The steaks were grilled outside of the cafeterias. You could smell those steaks all over campus!

The only place this year for breakfast in Thompson.

rocki · Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:29 pm

Never lived there, but did hang out there. Back in my day, the circular area of Tanner was a lounge.

Thu Oct 04, 2018 2:36 pm

wiu712 wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 11:45 am Back when I went to Western, Saga Food Service ran the cafeterias. Saturday nights were "Steak Night". The steaks were grilled outside of the cafeterias. You could smell those steaks all over campus!

They still do stuff like that actually...this is from two days ago:

sealhall74 · Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:01 pm

A neighbor to the west is not letting their unused residence hall spaces go to waste.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news ... ec2ea.html

Makes you kind of wonder if you could do a gradual floor by floor makeover of the rooms in Tanner while they are offline, combining 2-3 rooms into small suites, and then rent them out during big demand weekends. If I win the lottery this week, I will be on the first plane to Moline to pitch the idea to @StudentPres.

GV Dad · Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:55 pm

sealhall74 wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:01 pm A neighbor to the west is not letting their unused residence hall spaces go to waste.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news ... ec2ea.html

Makes you kind of wonder if you could do a gradual floor by floor makeover of the rooms in Tanner while they are offline, combining 2-3 rooms into small suites, and then rent them out during big demand weekends. If I win the lottery this week, I will be on the first plane to Moline to pitch the idea to @StudentPres.

^^^ THIS ^^^ A great way to bring in revenue, and also help solve for the shortage of Hotel rooms in Macomb.

wiu712 · Tue Oct 09, 2018 1:51 pm

In years past, Olson Hall would have rooms available for game weekends. Not sure if that still is the case.

rocki · Tue Oct 09, 2018 2:03 pm

sealhall74 wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 4:01 pm A neighbor to the west is not letting their unused residence hall spaces go to waste.

https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news ... ec2ea.html

Makes you kind of wonder if you could do a gradual floor by floor makeover of the rooms in Tanner while they are offline, combining 2-3 rooms into small suites, and then rent them out during big demand weekends. If I win the lottery this week, I will be on the first plane to Moline to pitch the idea to @StudentPres.

That would help during the summer Heritage Days festival, as well. Most people who went to Macomb High have their class reunions over that weekend, so there are a LOT of people in town and hotel rooms are at a premium. I know the new chair of the MACVB is working on things to bring people to town - they had a Survivor type competition this last summer, too.

BobLovely · Wed Oct 10, 2018 8:43 am

I lived in Tanner [Tanner 4] for one year, 1970-71 school year. I really enjoyed the experience. The food was excellent, 3 meals a day except on Sunday when there was only 2. The only real drawback to living in Tanner was that long walk across wind swept Q Lot in winter for an 8:00am class. Some of the coldest memories of my life...

Bob

wiu712 · Wed Oct 10, 2018 8:49 am

WIU hopes new program brings in students from Illinois.

From WGEM News:
https://wgem.com/2018/10/09/wiu-hopes-n ... -illinois/

sealhall74 · Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:48 am

wiu712 wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 8:49 am WIU hopes new program brings in students from Illinois.

From WGEM News:
https://wgem.com/2018/10/09/wiu-hopes-n ... -illinois/

It is interesting to see how the Illinois public schools are trying to dole out those AIM HIGH dollars. We appear to be spreading the love broadly around to lots of students for whatever their needs may be. On the other hand, UI-C is using the money to reward ultra-high academic achievers with free tuition and fees (but no room and board dollars) as long as you come from a family with combined income less than $150K. I guess the former approach could be classified as very much "utilitarian", i.e. trying to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. The latter one, let me think about it a moment ... Republican? Oops, sorry, I know we are not supposed to get political here but it's the first thing that came to mind.