By Grant Ward
On Tuesday, January 21st, there was extreme cold in the Quad Cities. A sprinkler pipe
began to leak that evening likely due to this, impacting The Grove dining area. The scene was
chaos, sprinklers raining throughout and the fire alarm going off.
In response, all food service was moved to the Rogalski Center lower level starting
Wednesday, January 22nd. According to Matthew Ardaugh, Catering Student Manager for
Sodexo, “…moving a whole buffet that serves about 600 people, three times a day, is a lot for a
place that was clearly built to serve the food that we’re doing already.”
“The ballroom’s a big space. It can seat this many people for something, but given that all
the food is being cooked down here, to have to send it all upstairs would be a lot of a hassle.
“If we would do this meal plan up in the ballroom, we wouldn’t have been able to do
things like club fest up there.”
The location wasn’t the only thing that changed. Due to the move, student meal choices
were also affected to accommodate the smaller space. Senior Elliot Boesch, a Human
Performance and Fitness major, feels disappointed in the lack of options. “There’s less food
options. The cafeteria has the stir fry station and burger station and all that stuff. It is a bit of a
downside that you can’t get those other options.”
Matt has also noticed that the small space affected the meal experience. “I like to go sit
down in the cafeteria, so I’m more for the experience there. That is definitely being offered better
over at Cosgrove.”
The Grove reopened on Saturday, February 1st for students, allowing a return to
normalcy. In an email sent to all SAU students, the food service team thanked everyone for their
patience.
